Master of Fire
by Danny Drak
Summary: She was beautiful, I decided, when the fire bound around her as mellow as a house cat. She was beautiful in all ways. It was almost too painful to think that this Fire Goddess may be a murderer and I may have to be the one that puts her behind bars for the rest of her life. Much too beautiful...Much too painful.
1. Chapter 1

Emmett shook with barely contained fury as he looked down at the body that was so cruelly twisted in that wooden crate. Edward and Jasper had just pried off one of the sides and we had been met with the sight of a magic trick gone horribly wrong.

She was a young girl, seventeen at the oldest, and she was shoved in a box where her knees were forced into her chest and her arms where trapped by her sides. Then one by one, it appeared as if the swords were thrust through the box. The only problem with this trick was that there was no mirrors, no hidden doors, and, so, the girl had been cruelly impaled.

"What a bastard!" Emmett roared, kicking another crate with all his might. The crate screamed in agony but it didn't break or bend. "He's on sick…bastard!"

"Nice vocabulary." Edward commented. Emmett just glowered at him. Edward held his hands up. "I don't disagree with you, man. I think this guy deserves the needle but you can't let cases like this get you down. Remember that, Rookies."

I flinched at being called Rookie. Yes, this was our first serial killer and our second dead body but we've been wearing these uniforms for a year and a half now. Edward Cullen and Jasper Hale were one of the best in the field and, considering my bear of a partner was married to Jasper's twin, they volunteered to be our guide through our first big case like this.

"So," Jasper said, taking a step back, "Tell us what you see." Emmett and I walked forward, nearly gagging on the putrid smell that invaded our noses, and surveyed the scene closely. Emmett only commented on the fact that the victim's wrists were bruised and the bruise under her eye suggested a fight.

Being more of the observant of the partners, I looked over the entire scene carefully. "The side of her head was hit. Her clothes suggest some money in her family." I looked around and then pointed to the way the boxes were hiding the street. "It was planned out before hand."

Edward nodded approvingly. "Good but you're still not looking deep enough." He leaned down. "She's been impaled by ten different swords and yet there is only a little amount of blood here. This actually suggest that she was killed somewhere else and dead when this was done to her. You can see," Jasper said as he bent down to get a better look at the body, "The bruises on her arms and neck, which suggest a struggle. The hands," he reached out and lifted a single finger, "Have been scrubbed clean almost religiously which means that our victim did some damage but was cleaned up at a later date."

"Jasper." Edward called. We turned to where Edward had climbed up on some oddly stacked crates that were probably not the most stable things in the world. "Come on up here." Jasper leapt up after Edward. Emmett stared at the creaking crates. I decided, being the daredevil I was, that the crates could support one more person and started to climb upwards.

Edward gave me a side glance but he returned to look at whatever he was looking at. I got to the crate right below the boys and looked to what they were staring at. There, just barely in sight, were the old fair grounds.

Edward looked over to me. "Connect the dots."

"The last body was tied to a runaway horse from Cirque D' Reject." I said, when I finally realized the connection. "This is one of the fair grounds they use when they come into town." Jasper nodded.

"Two years ago there was murder that we tried to tie to that circus but we couldn't get any real leads. A girl, fifteen years old, was found in two boxes. Sawed in half. The saw was from the magic show they did but we could find no actual suspect besides Isabella Swan but she had an airtight alibi."

Edward scowled as Jasper spoke. "I still think she did it. She's clever enough to get away with it and she's daring enough to do something like that." Edward Cullen was a very mild mannered man who rarely ever disliked someone but the way he spoke of this Isabella Swan was nothing short of absolute hatred.

I looked over to Jasper who grimaced. "She isn't the easiest of people to try to investigate." He explained. "I believe she talked circles around Edward for three hours straight." Edward huffed and glared at his lover. Jasper gave a soft smile in return that nearly melted Edward's stiff posture.

"Stop that." I growled. "You're making the single people all lonely over here." With that, I leapt down from the crates and walked over to Emmett who had his back turned to the dead body and was waiting for the recovery team to show up and pick up the body.

"Come on, big guy." I patted his shoulder. "Looks like, while the love birds enjoy the view, we get to do some real police work." I handed him his 'kit' that consisted of tons of baggies, gloves, fingerprinting kits, and containers to take blood in. I simply stuck to the camera. I had a knack for catching clues in the pictures even if we usually never found them until the case was solved.

Edward and Jasper came down right as we finished up and the recovery team had shown up and was starting the messy job of moving the body, crate and all.

"So," Edward asked, as we walked down to the car, "Can I please be the one that goes and drags that fire brat in for questioning?" Jasper gave a shrug and held the door open for his lover before going into the driver's seat. Emmett and I squeezed into the backseat.

We backed up before Jasper answered. "Last time, we brought her in with only a little evidence and she used that against us. I think we should try an informal questioning first and then bring her in. You know Billy always backs us up and we can pull her at any time."

Emmett leaned back. "I hate being out of the loop." He whined. "Wanna tell us what's up with this Isabella chick?"

The story that they both stated followed this outline. Two years ago a girl was found sawn in half and hidden under a large oak tree that seemed far too romantic and happy for a murder to committed in. When questioning the mother, they found that the place was special to the dead. She had recently dumped her girlfriend, Isabella Swan, in that same spot. That same girlfriend who had joined Cirque D' Reject two months earlier. That gave Isabella a motive to kill Leah, gave her access to the murder weapon among the circus's saws, and gave a personal connection and knowledge of the spot of that oak.

However, when questioned, Isabella had had an airtight alibi. She'd been at a rehearsal for the upcoming show and while she couldn't be accounted for at the time of the murder, she was too far from the murder scene to get to the oak tree and back in the thirty minutes when she was unaccounted for.

"So, why is she a suspect?" I questioned.

Edward grunted. "She didn't even cry when her girlfriend dies. She was aggressive, hostile, and she has an awful temper. Add that to the 'her girlfriend of two years just dumped her to go out with another girl' and she's guilty."

Emmett nodded next to me. "When are we going to meet this 'fire brat'? Why do you call her than anyways?"

Jasper smiled. "You'll see when you meet her."

"Ugg let's stop talking about that woman!" Edward growled. "Jasper and I are having dinner tonight. Would you guys like to come?"

Emmett sighed. "No. Rosalie and I are having a special night tonight." Jasper flinched in the front at the mention of a special night with his twin. "I haven't been spending enough time with her as of late. That's all gunna change soon."

I shook my head. "I can't. I've got some stuff to do at home that needs to be done before tomorrow morning." They really didn't look disappointed because that just meant they got the house to themselves for the night. Damn me and my dry-spell involving my sexual partners.

I was dropped off first. I lived in a house my parents left for me. I'd had a girlfriend that had once lived with me but she stayed for only a week before we realized that we could not live together what so ever. She was a super neat freak. I was a little messy but would clean after myself if someone asked me to but she…well, she screamed at me.

I slipped into my house to be greeted by my two cats; Grady being my black cat and Gideon being my crippled, partly blinded orange cat. I reached down to pick up Gideon who was my little cuddle monster. They followed me into my room where I stripped myself of my uniform.

I lounged on my couch, flicked on the t.v. for some background noise, and pulled out my laptop. I quickly searched the name Isabella Swan. I came up with a few speeding tickets, all the data that Edward had relaid to me but without the opinion, and some basic information on her. She was born in a small town; Forks, Washington, and was the daughter of the divorced parents of Charlie Swan and the newly married Renee Shallows.

The only information that caught my attention at all was a small paragraph that described her participation in the circus. **The suspect is a fulltime employee of the known establishment Cirque D'Reject. She is a performer of unique ability and of dangerous profession. **It then went into words that caused me to wish I'd paid better attention in high school. I did, however, deduct that this Isabella Swan did something with fire.

When I looked her up on trusty YouTube, I realized that she didn't do something with fire, she did everything with fire. I was honestly amazed and awestruck as I watched the performer move along the stage from a horrible attempt at a video.

She would dance around with fire roaring around her, blow the fire from her mouth, make the fire into shapes, make it change its color, and would, at times, disappear into the fire to reappear in another location all together in another fire. It was simply amazing.

I tried to find more videos of her, telling myself that I was not enjoying the daring theatrics and was doing police work, but was disappointed to find that Cirque D' Reject had a strict no cameras policy. It made sense but it disappointed me. I was even more disappointed when I found that no one was quite sure how Isabella Swan did what she did. Sure, there were people that had their theories but no one could recreate it.

Grady leapt next to me, meowing his complaints about my lack of attention to him, and I moved the laptop so he could get into my lap. "I think this is going to be a fun case." I told him softly.

Cirque D' Reject was a huge circus. I remembered it once from my childhood. I'd gone with my father and younger sister. I'd been entranced the second I'd walked into that oversized tent and watched as a man grew frustrated with his preforming bear who was, instead of sitting on the stool to take pictures with the audience, attempting to eat the stool and simply batted his paws at the man when he tried to make him stop.

We'd sat high up in the stands, the cheap seats, but I liked it up there. Sure there were times that I couldn't hear what the ring master had said and, sometimes, it was hard to make out what the clowns were doing, but it made the acrobatic performances larger than life. I was so sure that they were going to plummet to their deaths on a number of occasions but, at the last second, another performer would catch them and off they'd swing.

I liked the circus so much, in fact, that I tried to convince my parents to let me join the circus as a lion tamer. Of course, my parents had been appalled at such a thing and simply told me that no daughter of theirs would even be in a circus. Watching a circus was okay but being in a circus was like crime; making a living on charging people too much and tricking them.

I'd wanted to be in the circus until I saw one of those action movies that portrays a cop as some type of daredevil with the intense motorcycle chase scenes and jumping off large buildings onto escaping helicopters. My parents were more supportive of that career choice and here I was, fifteen years later, a rookie cop.

As I entered into that circus, those fifteen years later, I still felt that familiar awe I'd felt when I was seven. It was bigger than I remembered but it held that old age charm to it even if I could see motorcycles in the arena practicing their daredevil act of riding around, three at a time, in a large metal ball.

"Look at that!" Emmett gasped as a man, in those ridiculously high stilts, walked by. I would have been impressed if the man wasn't a clown with very creepy makeup.

"Please act professional." Jasper groaned. "We aren't here for fun."

Emmett pouted before he gave me a grin. "What do you say, Shortie? Want to come with me to this thing and actually be a part of the audience." I agreed without any hesitation.

Edward ended up shooing Emmett and I away while he and Jasper were forced to wait for the owner of the circus to return from a lunch he had been attending to. Apparently, he'd been irritated to find that one of his performers was, once again, being a suspect for murder.

Jasper simply said that Aro Volturi, the owner, could be very protective of his staff and sometimes cruel, so the last thing they needed was Emmett and I causing any problems with our big mouths; questioning people was neither of our strong points.

Emmett and I had been happy to oblige and took off to explore the circus while being professional, of course. The circus people had been a little suspicious of us at first, the badges and all, but instantly warmed up when they saw the childish fascination in our faces.

They actually went as far as to let Emmett attempt to climb up on one of the huge white horses that performed. The girl that rode the horse, Heidi, found it funny as Emmett wasn't even flexible enough to try to swing his leg up.

I laughed as Heidi helped Emmett up. Suddenly, I felt someone collide into my side and me and my attacker let out startled yelps as we fell to the ground. I leapt to my feet, hand on my gun, and whirled around, ready to defend myself.

A young blonde girl laid there, rubbing her head, and looking up at me with a horrified look. "I'm so sorry." She nearly shouted, struggling to get to her feet. "I wasn't looking where I was going. I'm just late…"

"It's okay." I assured the panicking girl. "You better go if you're going to be late." The girl gaped and glanced at her wrist as if looking for a watch. There wasn't one there.

"I'm so dead!" The girl cried, leaping to her feet. "She hates it when I'm late!" The girl was about to flee, so I grabbed her wrist to calm her down. She glanced in horror at my arm and looked desperately in the direction she'd been going. "I'm really sorry but I've got to go!"

"I'll come with you." I jumped at a chance to get in with someone at the circus. Friends were usually more willing to give out sensitive information than just the normal person. "I'll explain that I was the one that made you late."

"No, you weren't." The girl said, pulling at her arm. "I overslept."

"No, what are you talking about?" I said with a sigh. "I'm afraid that I forced you to show me around since I didn't know anything and made you late. I really should apologize to your mentor in person." The girl beamed at me, grabbed my wrist, and took off running. This girl was taller than me and much, much faster. I flung my feet in front of me in a manner that couldn't even be considered running just to keep up with her.

The girl brought me to a smaller tent, still big, but smaller than the main tent. She doubled over to catch her breath after casting a worried look around the empty tent. "Yes." She breathed. "I beat her!" She turned to me with a smile. "Sorry about that but I guess I don't need your help anyways. My name's Jane."

I shook the girl's hand. "Alice. Do you get to mad at her for being late?" I asked, gesturing to the deserted tent. Jane's eyes widened comically.

"That's not how it works. I need to get here on time. She can come whenever she wants."

"That doesn't seem fair."

Jane shrugged off her coat, displaying a revealing outfit that lacked sleeves, legs, most of the stomach, and about half of the back. "I guess it's not but she's the mentor and she can do whatever she wants. I'm the apprentice and if I've learned one thing, it's that the only way to make it in a business like this, it's please your mentor anyway you possibly can." Jane started doing some stretches. "So what's a decked out cop doing at Cirque D' Reject?"

I rolled my eyes. "We're investigating a double homicide." I watched for her reaction, expecting horror, but instead her eyes narrowed and she gave an annoyed huff.

"Why does every homicide across the nation have something to do with Cirque D' Reject? Just because we're circus people doesn't mean we're bad people." Jane shook her head, clearly frustrated, and her stretching became a little more jerky.

"Every homicide across the nation?" I grinned.

Jane rolled her eyes. "Okay, not _every _homicide but one of our performers was accused of murder a couple of years ago. It was before my time here but they had no right to." Jane was rigid and it was clear that the blow to the circus's reputation was something she took personally.

"My partners are just going to question a few people." I supplied. "No arresting or bringing in for interrogations or anything like that. I promise." Jane calmed down a little.

"I'm sorry about that." Jane did look apologetic. "It's just last time it really upset their 'number one' suspect. They no evidence against her and they hold her for questioning for a god awful amount of time. It's harassment. My mentor won't go for it a second time."

I blinked. "Your mentor? Who's your mentor?"

Jane opened her mouth to answer but the answer came from somewhere behind me.

"Isabella Swan."

I turned around to come face to face with the Master of Fire herself. She stood, her arms crossed across her chest, and a sneer. Her clothing was similar to what Jane was wearing but, considering Isabella was very, very well built, it looked much better on her.

Isabella walked forward, not taking her angry eyes off of me, before she turned to look at Jane. Jane just lowered her head and backed away from her unhappy mentor, finding the ground by her feet very interesting.

"I can't say I'm happy to see another cop in my practice arena." Her voice was musical, well _would _be musical, if it wasn't coming out as a deep growl. "Don't you people have anything better to do than harass me every time I come into town?"

I tried to talk, I really did, but her presence was making me feel like I was six inches tall. I don't know if it was her height over me, the way her voice growled, or how extremely sexy she was but I was scared witless.

"Cat got your tongue?" She sneered. "How about I try to guess why you're here. You found another piece of useless evidence of Leah's death and you've somehow came to the conclusion that it proves me guilty but it actually doesn't prove anything, so you're going to drag me into a little hot room and question me for hours on end hoping you're going to get a confessions out of me before you realize that I didn't do it and you have to let me go." By the end of her speech, she was in my face. It wasn't a threatening way, not really, but it did demand me to take a step back.

I shook my head slightly to regain my composure. "Actually, I made your student late for her meeting with you and I came to apologize." My voice was strong and I saw a flash in her eyes; she was impressed. "Though I'm afraid we are here to ask you some question." Her jaw tightened; she was angry.

She turned to face Jane. "Is that true?"

Jane nodded slightly before she froze her head near her chest. She looked up to her mentor, had an internal debate, and shook her head. "I overslept and was late. I tried running to get here before you realized I was late and ran into her. She was lying so I wouldn't get in trouble."

Isabella nodded. "After training you will write a three page essay, single spaced and twelve point font, about the uses of fire in mythology. I want it tomorrow." Jane nodded and looked relieved. Was her normal punishment worse than that?

"Is that really necessary?" I questioned. "She was late but at least she came and she told you the truth when she easily could have lied. Doesn't that count for anything?"

Isabella turned to me. "It does. That's why I'm going easy on her." I dropped the subject. Part of me really wanted to watch the practice just to see a close up of the fire I'd seen on my computer the night before but, by the way both Jane and Isabella were watching me, it was clear that I was not wanted.

"I do have questions for you." I said to Isabella. "Can we take this outside?"

"Am I under arrest?" She questioned and when I shook my head, she started to steer me towards the exit. "If you want to ask me questions then you're going to have to arrest me or at least get a warrant. I know my rights."

"It's about a homicide." I protested, feeling that I was quickly losing control of a situation that I'd never been control of in the first place. "Anything you have to say could be helpful."

"I was helpful last time and it got me as the prime suspect. Come back with a warrant, arrest me, or don't come back to talk to me again." Finally, I was out of the small practice tent. "Now, please leave. I'm in the middle of training and only Cirque D' Reject employees are allowed to attend." The flap was shut and I took that as my cue to leave.

I felt slightly output and started on my way back towards the main tent. I was met with the funny sight of Jasper and Edward lecturing Emmett about goofing off while on a case while the big man just stood there and pouted.

Edward turned towards me and frowned. "We tried to talk to Isabella Swan but Aro simply refused. He said we had to bring a warrant, arrest her, or at least have some proof that would tie her to the crime and until we had at least one of those, we weren't allowed 'to unlawfully harass his star performer'."

"Well I can do you one better." I said. "I talked to Isabella Swan but before you get your hopes up, she said the exact same thing."

Jasper blinked. "How'd you manage that? We tried to 'accidentally' run into Isabella on our way out of Aro's office but all the other performers wouldn't even glance subconsciously in the way that Isabella would be."

"I literally ran into her apprentice and went with her. I didn't even know Isabella Swan was her mentor but we met and I was caught between a knowledgeable citizen and the law, so I had to leave when she told me to."

"I didn't know Isabella had an assistant." Edward commented off handedly. He then looked around, catching some of the glares that circus folk were giving him, and sighed. "We better leave. It's clear that we're unwelcomed here."

We all loaded up in the car and drove away. I retold the events of my meeting with Isabella and was surprised to find Edward blow it way out of proportion. He even suggested that we try to have her arrested for manhandling a uniformed officer. I pointed out, much to his dismay, that while she had touched me, there had been nothing threatening, harsh, or forcing in her touch. I'd left on my own.

Then Edward actually suggested that one of them grab me in the same place hard enough to leave a bruise and then claim it was her. Jasper was the one that told him to knock it off before he started doing something illegal.

"So," Emmett chuckled, "Was it scary being in someone's presence that could have fried you alive with a snap of her fingers?"

I frowned. "I don't know. I was scared but I wasn't scared of her. I don't think her hurting me ever crossed my mind but I've never seen such raw rage in someone's eyes like that without their face twisting into that demonic look. She truly is something to behold." Edward made growling noises in his throat and brooded in the front seat.

Jasper drummed his fingers thoughtfully against the steering wheel. "Well, I guess we should take Aro's advice. Let's find something that ties Isabella in with the three murders. I'd suggest we compile all the knowledge we have on the other two girls and see what the crime lab has turned up on the new one."

With that plan of action in mind, we all headed back towards headquarters.


	2. Chapter 2

"I got something." Emmett hollered, running into the break room, and waving the papers above his head. We all looked up from our coffee and musings to the large man. "I connected everything to Isabella Swan."

"How?" Edward asked, looking far too interested and excited.

Emmett plopped down. "First death was Leah Clearwater and we all know that she dumped Isabella two months earlier. She dumped her for Jessica Stanley; our second body, the one being drug around by the runaway circus pony. The last body was a Mrs. Victoria Evans who a bully to the one and only Ms. Isabella Swan in high school. Apparently, she used to make life a living Hell for the Fire Princess."

Edward smirked. "Now does anyone have any doubts that she's innocent? There are way too many consequences in this case for it to be anyone but her!"

Jasper was the only one that dared to speak up. "Well, we can't pin Leah's death on her because, once again, love, she did have an alibi for that night, but I do think that's enough proof to get Aro to let us question her."

"Think he'll let you?" I asked. "If what you guys said is true, he sounds pretty hell-bent on keeping Isabella out of trouble."

Jasper just smirked. "That's why he'll let us question her. You see, why we don't have anything more than speculation and motive, it'll be enough to convince him that we have a case against her. By letting us question her, it'll look better for her if it does go to court on this evidence." Jasper turned to Emmett and smiled. "Good work, Rookie."

"Thanks, cowboy." Emmett smirked back. Edward turned bright red and looked horrified while Jasper just smirked. I hid my smile in my hand. I couldn't help but admit that I was a little sad that Isabella was turning out to be most definitely the killer. I wasn't sure why but some part of me wanted her to be completely innocent.

Edward volunteered to personally go down and show the evidence to Isabella and bring her in for questioning while Jasper herded us towards the criminal lab in the western wing of headquarters. The criminal lab was run by the three geniuses known as the Denali sisters. You'd expect those three to be super models not the forensic experts that they were.

Kate had headphones on and was searching for something on the internet. Kate's special gift was in hacking. I'm pretty sure not all of it was legal but, when someone is as good as Kate, you let them get away with things like that.

Irina and Tanya were looking over the evidence that was laid out across the table in the corner. It held all of the personal belongings of Victoria Evans. They waved us over and the three of us walked over to the table.

"Heard you're going after Isabella Swan again." Tanya said. "So, we pulled out all the stops." Tanya added for me and Emmett's benefit. "She's a tricky one. Alright, you guys are looking at all the evidence we can get from the body, at least until the results come back from the lab."

Irina took over. "Your initial thoughts were correct. The victim did put up quite a fight but we couldn't recover any DNA from under the fingernails. But we have something that does suggest a female attacker. The state of the clothing and the positioning of the bruising suggest that the victim and the attacker were evenly matched; the kill strike to the head could have possibly been the attacker's last resort which we believe because the other two victims had been tortured while alive. This suggests that the attacker probably was a female."

Kate came up behind us, scaring us all with her quiet movements. "There isn't much else the body can tell us. Though we do have the estimate time of death, actually, exact time of death give or take an hour." Kate reached down to a little container and held it up to reveal a bunch of little maggots. I fought a shiver.

"The maggots just hatched in the container." Tanya explained. "That means they weren't even laid two days ago. Dr. Cullen already gave the time of ten to twelve at night on the 22nd. You're girl has been dead only a day and half."

Jasper conversed with the sisters a little while longer though it wasn't much of a conversation considering the Denali sisters were famous for their inability to interact with things that weren't made of wires.

Jasper's phone beeped and we all left for the interrogation room. Edward was sitting on the other side of the two way mirror, smirking at the obviously infuriated Isabella on the other side of the mirror.

"Dude," Emmett chuckled, "You're starting to go creeper on us." Edward just ignored him before Jasper filled Edward in on the new information.

"Watch this." Edward smirked. "I've been thinking of things to break her since I met her those two years ago." Edward then proceeded to practically strut out of the door in the hearing room, into the hall, and into the interrogation room.

Edward slammed a file down on the desk as hard as he could. Amusingly, he flinched more at the sound then Isabella did. Edward pushed the file over to Isabella who just stared at the vanilla file. She didn't even look curious and seemed to be waiting for Edward to continue.

"I don't think Edward's the right person to do the interview." I commented before Jasper shushed me.

"Do you know what that is?" Edward questioned Isabella.

"My permanent record?" She responded. "Ohhh, please don't tell mother you caught me making out behind the bleachers with Angela! She won't let me go to Mike's party then!" Emmett chuckled. Edward must have felt our amusement because he glared over his shoulder at us.

"Cut the crap!" Edward snarled. "This is what is going to send you for jail for the rest of your life. I have proof that you committed three murders."

"Are you allowed to lie on these types of reports?" She questioned, arching her eyebrow demandingly. "Because I didn't murder anyone. The biggest charge you could plant on me was stealing a piece of bubble gum when I was six."

"Since you aren't going to confess and continue to play stupid, let's try something else." Edward finally sat down. "Do you know any of the following people; Leah Clearwater, Jessica Stanley, or Victoria Evans?"

Isabella snorted. "I couldn't have listed three more people I do know more in my life. The girlfriend stealer, the girlfriend, and homophobic bitch."

"That's funny you'd say that." Edward mused. "When was the last time you had contact with any of these girls?"

Isabella groaned. "Look, if someone finally beat that Jessica up for taking other's girls, while I'm not sad it happened, I didn't do it. And Victoria probably just got hit by that loser husband of hers James and is trying to make my life Hell. I haven't seen them for about two years."

"Really?" Edward questioned. "Then why is it that the three girls that wronged you are all dead?" The look of surprise on her face looked genuine to me. "Now you have nothing to say?" Edward passed the pictures over to Isabella of the crime scene; body included.

She looked over them quickly before pushing them away. "I don't need to see those. I didn't kill them. I didn't have a reason to. Yeah, they'd all screwed me over at one point of my life but I've outgrown all of them. I can steal anyone's girlfriend now, so no reason to go after Jessica, get anyone I want, so no reason to have gone after Leah, and last I heard Victoria was an abused housewife to her high school drunk of a boyfriend. There's nothing to be angry of anymore." She sat up, her body language defensive, and her voice became controlled. "You've got nothing on me because I didn't do it."

Edward sighed. "Then can I ask where you were on the 22nd between ten and twelve P.M. or on the 15th between two and four in the morning?"

Isabella seemed to go through her calendar in her head. "The 22nd would have been the day after the show in Baltimore so I would have been sleeping all day in my trailer." Edward went to open his mouth to say something but she interrupted him. "You can ask people but I went into my trailer and didn't come out till the next day but I know you are going to think that I just somehow slipped out the window and murdered Jessica." She said the wrong name. Jessica had been murdered on the fifteenth but she'd said it anyway. It didn't mean much but, to me, it made me wonder. "But I can tell you my exact location on the fifteenth."

"Oh really?" Edward growled. "Another day in your trailer that can't be proved at all?"

"I was in the hospital." Isabella said, almost smugly. She reached over and lifted up the side of her shirt to reveal a small bandage. "Accident during the show. Got really bad because I didn't leave right away and stop the burning. Was in the hospital all day and all night to make sure it didn't get infected. That you can call about and get the paperwork not to mention the video recording of me in the bed all day long."

Jasper growled and threw his arms down to his side. "This sucks. I knew she' d have a way out of it." I wanted to point out that it wasn't really fair to be mad when she had been in the hospital because she was hurt but he looked so mad, that I decided against it.

Edward continued to question her about things as Jasper went to check on her alibis. Both of them turned out to be true and, while the 22nd was a questionable one, the hospital checked out beyond airtight. Apparently, a few of the nurses and doctors had been a fan of Isabella's after seeing her show that there was almost always someone watching her. That turned up the fact that Isabella didn't have her phone that day, so she wasn't in contact with anyone anyways.

Finally Edward came in, frustration on his face.

Emmett smirked at him. "You had her a little at the beginning but she completely stone walled you that last forty-five minutes."

Edward ignored Emmett and looked pleadingly at Jasper. "Her alibis check out and she wasn't in contact with anyone during the day of the murder." Jasper wrapped an arm around Edward's shoulder. "That's really uncommon if she had someone else killed Victoria. She'd want to be kept in the circle at all times."

"Maybe she really had the phone?" Edward asked hopefully.

Kate answered that from the door that was now opened without our aware. It was a little creepy how quiet she was. "We ran the phone records. Isabella is on her phone a lot during the day, mostly to her best friend Jacob Black. However, on the fifteenth, there were plenty of incoming messages from Jacob but none of them were even returned. It's safe to say that she didn't have her phone on her." Edward went to say something but Kate beat him to it. "We also checked the hospital's records of the phone in her room during the fifteenth. She never touched it. She was, apparently, so loopy from the painkillers in her system that she wouldn't have been able to dial the numbers anyways. Add that to fact that we monitored the people that visited her that day and she didn't use any of their phones, she didn't place any calls in that day."

Edward argued with Kate for a long while but, like always, Kate was right and could prove it. Kate had to show Edward the footage of the video camera before he believed that she wasn't secretly passed a cell phone. None of her visitors came within reaching distance of her, mostly because, even in her woozy state, she was messing around with fire.

"So what do we do with Isabella?" I asked, looking over to where the girl looked like she was quickly becoming fed up with being in that room. I couldn't blame her. She'd been left in there, alone, for an hour now.

Edward growled. "We let her go. That's all we can do." Edward let out a bark of frustration and slammed his hand into the table. "We almost had her this time." Emmett looked just as frustrated at the others.

"I'll take her back to the circus." I offered. I could see they were about to protest, so I raised my hand to silent them. "Look, I'm familiar to her but not in a bad way. She's not going to be very friendly to either Jasper or Edward because they've been grilling her for the last two years, and Emmett, you can be pretty intimidating."

They finally agreed to let me take Isabella to the circus as long as I agreed to keep my gun out of my holster and hidden in my lap in case she tried to fry me. I simply called them nervous nellies and went into the interrogation room.

Recognition flashed in her eyes and she narrowed them at me. I flickered my eyes to the mirror, more towards the men behind the mirror, and shook my head slightly. She got the message and wiped that sneer off of her face.

"I'm sorry." I started, surprising her and probably the men behind the mirror. "I can take you wherever you want to go."

"Can I just go home?" Isabella asked. I nodded, seeing her eyes brighten slightly. She got up and followed me as we left the room. I led her to my own personal car. I thought it might make her relax a little though I'd probably hear it later from the boys.

Isabella slid into the front seat, looking over my messy car, and relaxed back into the seat. "Nice car." She picked up the camera off the dash and arched her eyebrow at the sticker on the dashboard that said ALICE. I was about to tell her to leave the camera alone, being filled with photos of the murderers she was being accused of, but she just placed the camera on the console. At my questioning look, she shrugged. "Putting technology in the sun like that is a great way to completely fry it, Alice." A murderer that move someone else's, a someone trying to put them away for murder, camera into the shade without being asked; did that make sense?

"Thanks. So, I'm bringing you back to the circus, right?"

Isabella nodded. "Home sweet freaking home." She leaned back in her seat and, from between her fingers, fire suddenly danced up.

"Not in the car!" I said sternly. Isabella just arched an eyebrow at me, opened her palm, and started wiggling her fingers while the fire seemed to weave between her fingers like a snake. I'd never seen fire do something like that before. What impressed me more was that she was thoroughly searched and she didn't have anything like a lighter on her. How did she start the fire?

Isabella smirked at me. "It's not like I'm going to lose control of the fire." Without any movement, the fire died out. She showed me her hand, closed it, and the fire restarted from between different fingers.

I chuckled. "I don't have any doubt you can control that fire. I just don't trust myself not to watch it and kill us both in a fiery crash." Isabella studied me for a moment, obviously taking in the way I kept glancing away from the rode to look at the fire, and put the fire out. "Thank you. I'd like to live another day of waking up to my cats."

She smirked. "Cat lady?"

"I am not." I answered with a huff. "I just don't happen to have the time for dogs and fish are just so pitifully stupid that I can't stand having them in my house."

"Stupidity is contagious." She commented, seemingly amused with what I'd said. "That's why I try to stay out of cop's presence for as long as I possibly can."

I could tell she was being serious, so I simply answered. "Really? That's funny. That's why I try to stay out of the presence of murderers. I hear malice is transferred through touch." I saw her scowl at me and I subconsciously adjusted my weight, so I could grab my gun easy in case she attacked me.

"You people must seriously suck at your job if I'm still even a suspect. I have airtight alibis for two of the three murders I'm being accused of. Why don't you go find someone that, I don't know, actually did it and leave me alone?" Fire made it's reappearance as she moved it from fingertip to fingertip with a look of intense concentration. "Seriously, being a suspect in murder is really making it hard to get a girlfriend that doesn't think pain is pleasure."

"Yeah, I can guess. Being a cop ruins my chance of getting a girl. We work weird schedules, late nights, and some girls just can't handle that." My sexuality wasn't something I normally shared with murder suspects but we were in the same boat and I might as well complain about it while I can.

"Really?" Isabella looked surprised. "You have problems getting girls?" It was kind of flattering how she looked at me like she really couldn't believe me. "I don't see that."

"Ditto. How do you not have to fight girls off with sticks even with the investigation on you?" I asked her.

She snickered. "I do. I said I wanted a girlfriend. Those girls are all interested in sleeping with Isabella the fire goddess instead of dating the Isabella Swan from the Forks. You can only have so many one night stands before they just get old." She then turned to sit sideways to face me. "Your turn? You're hot, good body, good job, nice-ish car, and you have a gun. You got a bad personality or something?"

I laughed. "Nah. Girls think I'm all that, you know, with the good body and being great in bed." Isabella chuckled at that. "Then I have to push back a few dates or can't sleep with them very often because I can't be tired for work. Suddenly, I'm a bad girlfriend. Got called a cheater a few times too."

"Are you one?" My glare must have answered her question because she just gave a slightly apologetic smile. "The turns up here." She pointed to the turn I was quickly approaching and was about to pass up.

"Thanks! I was going to miss it." I was almost stopped by security until they saw Isabella in the front and they let us through. I pulled up to the front of the tent. "Well, here you go. Sorry about the inconvenience and the lack of girlfriend."

Isabella gave a slight shrug. She reached down, grabbed the camera, and got out of the car.

"Wait!" I threw my seatbelt off and leaned out the window. "You can't take that!"

"If you want it back, you're going to have to follow me." She said over her shoulder, holding the camera in the air like bait. I leapt out of my car, barely registering that fact I could be following a killer blindly, and hurried to catch up with her.

I caught up easily. I made a grab for the camera but she simply straightened her arm above her head. I refrained from fruitlessly jumping for the camera so as not to look like some pitiful fool. I knew she was too tall and I couldn't reach.

A few of the circus people glared at me until they saw me helplessly following after Isabella and the camera. More than a few people grinned sympathetically at me. I'm starting to guess she does this to a lot of people.

"Where are we going?" I asked, eyeing a rat that was seated upon a cat that was sitting on a dog. They looked perfectly at ease with each other.

"That's Tweedle, Dee, and Dum." Isabella explained. "They're not really in the show."

"Then why are they here?" I questioned, watching as the started licking the dog's ear affectionately, while the rat just grabbed onto the cat's little collar to keep from being thrown off.

"They're a test for some of the animal trainers wannabe's." Isabella ducked out of the main tent and headed towards a bunch of trailers. "We call in animal stacking. A trainer can choose three animals of any species, providing they're not illegal, and their test is to have the animals stack up on each other like Tweedle, Dum, and Dee. The rules are if you cannot get them to do it in the time you're given you fail and have to retake it at a latter date and if any of the animals are harmed or killed you're told to leave."

"That's kind of harsh."

"Not really." She started leading me through trailers. "You see, by making those who simply haven't trained the animals to do the stacking retake the test, we are enforcing that it's important to do whatever necessary to complete the task in the time you are given without injuring the animals by pushing them to hard. Those who actually injure the animals are told to leave because we value safety over actual success. Not to mention that any harm done to animals can cause huge uproar in animal lovers and is a lot to deal with."

Isabella took a key out of her back pocket and opened a trailer that looked the same as all the other ones surrounding. The only difference was that the trailer was right next to a beautifully painted truck. It was a beautiful deep red, orange, with some blue in it. It looked like fire.

"Welcome to my humble abode." Isabella said, gesturing for me to come inside. Realizing that getting permission to go into her 'house' without actually having to have a warrant was something that I couldn't pass up, I beamed at her.

I came in and was surprised how simple the interior was though orange and grey were pretty much the entire color scheme present. Isabella suddenly tossed me the camera. "Go ahead and look around all you want. Just ask if you want to take something to have tested for…whatever you guys could be looking for. Take all the pictures you want."

"You're letting me search this?" I blinked. "That's a huge change from our previous encounter."

She just shrugged. "Look, I figure you guys do have enough against me, not evidence wise, but motive wise to be a problem. Not being helpful will just hurt me at the moment." She opened the fridge and pulled out a soda. "Want one?"

I shook my head and started looking around. Isabella sat down on the couch, turned on the t.v., and watched both me and the t.v.. I touched some things like an old photo album that clearly was important to her and she didn't approve of me touching. However, she just sat there and let me look around.

"Can I take pictures for our profiler?" I asked. If she was going to work with me, I may as well return the favor.

She nodded but nearly growled at me when I took a picture of her. "Not of me! I hate pictures." She grumbled and kept a hand over her face until I turned around and started taking pictures of how the room was simply set up, the books in her shelves, and some of her family photos.

"Can I please see your bedroom?" I asked. Isabella nodded and stood up. The trailer had three doors behind the living room. One was the bathroom, one was locked up, and the other was Isabella's room.

She saw me looking at the locked door suspiciously. "That's Jane's room." She supplied. "I'm not entirely sure why she locks it. I think it's to give herself the illusion of privacy and her just being a teenager. If you want to look in it, you'd have to run it by her."

"Nah, she's not the one being investigated. Besides, last teenager's room I searched, I only found sex toys and playboys." Isabella's door was locked, apparently to keep cops out of it, but she unlocked it and let me walk into it first. I kept an eye on her, making sure she didn't look the door behind her and trapping me there. My paranoia was unwarranted because she didn't even close the door an inch and left it wide open.

I looked around quickly. My eyes instantly fell onto her bed. I've always thought you could tell a lot about a person on how they left their bed in the morning.

"Like what you see?" Isabella whispered, her body suddenly only a fraction of an inch from pressing against mine, and her hot breath hitting my neck. I felt my body shiver but was pleased when the shiver remained interior only. Apparently a girl in her bedrooms made her hormones go wild. I couldn't blame her. I couldn't even imagine what I would do if I saw her by my bed.

I turned to look back at her. "You shouldn't do that to a cop." I whispered to her. "It would be a shame if I accidentally shot someone as good looking as you." She shot me a killer smile and sat on the bed, gesturing for me to look around. As if I could actually focus on my surroundings when such a good looking girl had just done that and was now lying in a bed.

I shook my head and went into professional mode though I did turn bright red when I opened her underwear drawer and saw lace. I slammed it closed loud enough for it to catch her attention and make her have a chuckle at my expense.

When I was done, I thanked her and went to leave. "Ohhh, one more thing." Isabella held the soda she'd been drinking to me. "You saw me open it, drink it, and no one else touched it. Does this work for DNA and fingerprints?"

I grabbed some gloves from my pocket and took the soda from her. I thanked her.

She just smirked. "Hey, anything for a fellow lesbian, huh? 'sides, I figure if I cooperate with you then they'll send you all the time and not those buffoons you work with. Trust me," she looked me head from toe, "The experience and the view is sooo much better." Guessing her hormones were still out of whack from the bedroom. Lucky.

I took a step forward, putting my face right in hers. She flicked her eyes to my lips. "Why, Miss Swan. I don't think flirting with the person trying send you to jail is quite the smartest idea." I sighed, allowing my breath to hit her lips. "This girl is a fire that will burn if played with."

She smiled, licking her lips. "But it'll be so hot that clothes will have to be removed." Our noses brushed and the physical contact snapped me to my senses.

"Go find one of your fans to put out your raging fire." I said, backing up. Isabella just grinned at me and leaned against the door jam. "This cop has work to do. Good day, Isabella Swan."

I only got a few steps when she yelled. "Bella." I turned back with a frown. She grinned. "I prefer Bella from girls as hot as you. I can usually pretend it's one of those pet names that come from the throes of the bedroom."

"See you later, Bella." I saw her eyes darken as I walked away and I could feel her eyes on me as I left. Those eyes were heating my body to a dangerous level and it took everything in me to keep from turning around to see if she was still watching me.

Jane came around the corner and beamed when she saw me. "Hey Alice!" I blinked and smiled at the girl. She gave me a joking smile. "I guess I'll forgive you for taking my mentor for questioning considering I got my first day off in two years! I'm happy she got to make your life Hell for the day instead."

I chuckled. "See, I can't tell if you like Bella or you hate her?"

"Bella?" Jane gave a wicked smile. "She's already letting you call her Bella. Hmmmmm, you must have made a really, really good impression. But, it's complicated. Bella is a really good person and a great friend but she's super tough as a mentor. She's one of those people that I debate killing on a daily bases but when she's hurt you get that sick feeling to your stomach. It's a love-hate thing that most mentors and apprentices share."

I nodded. I guess I could relate to that. It was the relationship I felt with my father though it usually leaned more towards hate then love. Jane chatted with me for a few more moments before she said she had to go brag to Bella about completing her daily tasks even though Bella hadn't been there to make her do it. Jane said she hoped it would make Bella finally see her as a grownup.

I'd barely slipped into the car when my phone went off on the dashboard. I answered it just to be yelled at by Edward. Apparently forgetting your phone in the car when transporting a possible murderer was careless. He also told me that I needed to call Emmett who was racing down to the fairgrounds as we spoke to come rescue me.

When I called Emmett, I was treated with same loud voice and reprimanding manner as Edward had shown.

The only thing that saved me was that I told them that I had gotten Bella's, though I made sure to call her Isabella, trailer and had gotten a good look around. I'd also kept a hold of my gun at all times. Jasper beamed at me, patting my shoulder and praising me on my ability to connect with the perp, while Edward was caught between being happy I'd gotten as far as I had. Emmett was just angry at me.

Dr. Cullen, Edward's dad, was our skilled profiler and he came down to look at the pictures I'd taken. When the pictures where printed, he sat down at the table with us surrounding him, and looked at each and every picture.

Dr. Cullen, or Carlisle as he told me to call him, was both our Dr. Death and shrink. It was funny how a man that was so good at hearing and seeing what the dead wanted to share was also good at understanding how the living seemed to think; the living being the ones that are harder for him to understand.

He took a good long look at each and every picture that was before him. He took interest mostly in the one I'd snapped of Bella.

Dr. Carlisle sighed and put the pictures down. "Son, I'm going to say to you exactly the same thing I told you last time." Edward scowled. "She doesn't display any behavior that suggests a violent side."

"You have to be wrong." Jasper groaned. "I could understand her not doing it the first time. You are never wrong and maybe Leah's death was just coincidental but here are two more deaths that are tightly connected to her. I never thought I'd say this but you are wrong."

Carlisle shook his head. "Look at this." He showed the picture to us. "Do you see these pictures? This trailer is full of sentimental objects. Pictures of her dad, of her childhood, her friends, and even one of a dog. A murderer of this caliber would not be able to connect well enough to establish a relationship where she would keep pictures."

Emmett was the one, surprisingly, to argue. "Well, it could be for show. She is a performer. We don't know what illusions she's playing on us right now."

"They aren't illusions." I defended. "She handles real fire. The danger and the fire are very much real. I saw her playing with it in my car." Emmett looked a little surprised with me defending Bella as I was. Would it be bad to say that I was leaning towards Bella being innocent and my extreme attraction to her only helped that theory; it didn't make it.

Carlisle nodded. "Another thing. She's a planner. Look at these notes that Alice took a picture of. Alice, what are these plans?"

I looked over to the picture. "I'm not sure. She said they were for the show."

"She told the truth. This little picture holds some formulas I can recognize. She's calculating air flow, temperature, and some basic physics here and those are the formulas I can actually recognize. These are probably to minimize risk during her show. If she was a murderer, she would be the next Jack the Ripper and you wouldn't even be suspecting her."

"If she's that smart, it'd make it all the easier to commit the murder." Edward stated. "Dad, thank you for your opinion but, this time, I think you're wrong. I'm positive that Isabella has committed this crime and I intend to prove it."

I stayed for the rest of the small debate; neither of their opinions changed. Surprisingly, Emmett had jumped aboard team Edward and was just as sure that Bella had committed the murders as the others. There was no surprise Jasper was with his lover.

It seemed that Carlisle was the only one convinced she was innocent. I was the only one that strongly suspected she was innocent but just didn't say anything. I waited until the men had gone before I turned to face Carlisle, my hands on hips.

"Alright, what am I missing?" When Carlisle didn't say anything, I added. "Edward is not being himself on this case. He's too against Bella and, frankly, this hatred of her is affecting his ability to perform a good investigation."

Carlisle gave a small smile. "Bella, huh? Not Isabella." I internally cursed at myself for the slip of the tongue. "I can't say I'm surprised Isabella has become interested in you but it is surprising she lets you call her Bella. She must really like you. I don't think all the pleading in the world would have made it so Isabella allowed Edward to call her that."

"So, they do know each other."

Carlisle nodded. "They went to the same high school. Edward was a year younger than Isabella and, while Isabella had fully embraced her love for the fairer sex, Edward hadn't come to realize his own sexual preference and, if he had, he refused to act upon it. Isabella, even in high school, was the perfect woman that every man or boy drooled after."

"Edward liked her?"

Carlisle gave a half shrug. "I'd say he saw it more as some type of challenge. That challenge most young males are faced with when they come into the presence of a stunning lesbian. 'I know I can make her straight. She just needs a man like me. Isabella shot him down gently at first but, as time went by, she became irritated with his attempts at courting and began to become a little harsher."

"He didn't stop?" It really was weird to try to imagine the calm and charming, completely gay, Edward attempting to 'court' the extremely sexy and dangerous, completely gay, Bella Swan. Even if they weren't both, once again, completely gay, they'd kill each other in a day.

"No." Carlisle admitted. "If anything he took it a step too far. I don't know what possessed him to do what he did next but he did it. He asked Isabella out, at graduation, in front of almost all the school, the parents, and his graduating class. Obviously, she turned him down. It was very embarrassing for him and he's hated her ever since."


	3. Chapter 3

My knuckles rapped against the big boss's door. It had taken me only a day of hard thinking that had led me to the decision I was about to make. I'd regret it in the short run but, in the long run, I'd be proud of myself as I looked back.

After I was told to come in, I walked into Billy Black's office. Billy had been shot when he'd tried to stop an armed robber from grabbing a hostage. The bullet had done the worst possible damage and completely paralyzed him from the waist down. He'd taken it alright though I sometimes felt that he missed the thrill that came with being an active detective or cop.

"Alice." He seemed surprised but pleased to see me. "Come in, come in. I'm just reviewing the notes on the case you're working. Jasper just dropped them off for me. It seems like it's almost solved though."

I sat down across from him and took a deep breath. "That's what I wanted to talk to you about."

Billy looked up. "Well, it seems like this conversation is going to be taking a more serious tone then I was expecting. I did just plan to make a few jokes about her best friend being a Jacob Black. Black…hmmm…I didn't realize it was such a common last name. However, you seem to have something important to say."

"I don't think our team should be the ones that run this investigation." I admitted softly. That seemed to surprise Billy extremely because he leaned forward, his elbows on the desk, and his eyes searching my face with a hawk's concentration.

"I'd say your team is doing a pretty good job." Billy opened the folder and looked down. "Sure, the case needs some more in it but I have no doubt that the team can find it. You all are extremely talented people."

"It's not that." I admitted. "I think there is too much personal involvement in between Isabella and the team for a good investigation." Billy went to say something. I knew if Billy didn't hear everything I had to say before he began talking then he'd tell me to come off of it and go back to work without giving it much thought.

"Billy," I interrupted, "Edward has hated Isabella with a passion ever since she embarrassed him in front of the entire high school they both attended together. Look at the evidence. Then realize, there is none that connects the murders to her. Did she do it? I don't know. But we shouldn't be focusing all our attention on somebody who our profiler believes can't hurt a fly, whose boss and coworkers absolutely adore, and had two airtight alibis for two of the murders."

Billy seemed to contemplate what I had said and looked back down at the file with new eyes.

"Isabella is being extremely helpful. She's given me DNA, fingerprints, free range in her trailer, and all of them without being asked. Her personality is extremely pleasant until Edward rips into her and then she becomes reluctant to help and aggressive. I am the only one on the team that thinks there is possibility that she's innocent."

Billy leaned back in his wheelchair and rubbed his forehead for a long time, occasionally sighing. "Tell me what happened between Edward and Isabella." I explained what Carlisle had told me and then told Billy about Edward's behavior towards her; the way he'd tried to frame her for hurting me, his approach at her in the interrogation room, and how his attitude was making her appear more guilty than she actually was in front of the others and it was affecting how they saw the case.

"Thank you." Billy said after another moment's silence. "I will think about what you've said about Edward."

I gave a nod. "I don't mean to cause problems but she's a really nice girl. I want her to get a fair chance." I walked out of the office. I partly felt bad but I was a little proud of myself too. I usually just went with what Emmett, Edward, or Jasper said but, today, I made a decision for myself and I was proud of it.

Edward was leaning up against a table, holding up the picture that contained the books that littered Isabella's shelves. I bet he was hoping for something titled like _How to Get Away with Murder _or _Serial Killing for Dummies. _

I waved a goodbye to him, feeling a little guilty as he looked excitedly down at the evidence, and slipped outside. I'd barely gotten in my car before I realized something even worse. I'd been roped into eating with Rosalie and Emmett for dinner tonight. Jasper and Edward would probably be there, as well.

Remember how I said I'd regret that decision in the short run? Well, time to start regretting. As if on cue, a call from Rosalie came. I debated not picking up the phone but, since I knew Rosalie, thought better of it and picked up the phone.

"So, Alice, I just finished cooking that blasted meal. You'd think spaghetti and meatballs would be a simple meal but nooooo, Emmett has to have some secret family recipe that takes about three hours to prepare. I've never even heard of half of these spices!"

"Well, hello to you too, Rosalie." I chuckled. "Isn't it such a nice day?"

"Cut the crap, Brandon!" Rosalie rumbled. "I'm partly covered in sauce and if I want to complain to my best friend then I'm gonna do it and you are going to listen." I then spent the rest of the ride home listening to how hard it was to get the right amount of red peppers and cheese and these odd Egyptian peppers and make them taste good.

"So, Rosalie…" I rubbed the back of my head as I sat in my car, parked in my parking space. "About dinner tonight…I don't know if I can make it." There was dead silence on the other end. I bit my lip and waited for the lashing to come. When the silence lasted too long, I softly said. "Rosalie?"

"I'm sorry, I think I misheard you. Did Alice Brandon, the girl who swore she'd be there tonight so I wouldn't be left alone with the guys and also promised that she'd always keep her promises to anyone because those who broke their promise weren't worthy of being human, just say she was canceling tonight?"

I groaned. "Rosalie. It's not like that."

"Are you breaking your promise?" Rosalie questioned. I knew I had lost this fight. When Rosalie got into one of her 'moods' she was impossible to deal with unless she got her way. I thought about it for a moment before sighing loudly.

"Dinner's at seven?"

"Good girl." Rosalie said. "Yes, it is. I will see you there." With that, the girl hung up. Just as there had been no hello, there was no goodbye. I rolled my eyes and went into my house. As usual, my cats were openly pleased to see me and circled my feet until I fed them.

I slipped into some comfortable clothes. I used to be huge on fashion and style until I became a cop. It wasn't that there weren't fashionable cops but when you were so tired and always had to hide a gun on the base of your back, you found it not as important.

When I came out of my bedroom my answering machine beeped multiple times. I leaned over towards it to listen to my messages.

_Hey, Ali-kitten! _Emmett's overly cheerful voice called. _If I find out that you are there I am going to kill you. How dare you not have your phone on you while transporting a killer?! What were you…_The message was deleted before he could get into his rant. I'd heard it in person, so I didn't want a reminder.

The next message began to play. _Hey Alice, it's Emily._ I winced when I heard that name. Emily was a sweet girl, no doubt about it, but she could be overly, overly jealous which I didn't find amusing considering she was always hanging off her ex-boyfriend Sam in my presence. I'd ended it about two months ago but whenever she and Sam were on a break, she'd call me up. _I was around today and was wondering if you wanted to do something with me? You know, if you had some free time._

I knew that responding to her call would mean being tricked into spending a day with her which would probably end in spending a night with her too. Normally, I wouldn't mind too much because I was dying for romp but I wasn't going to go there with her again. Mostly because Sam always threatened to kill me when I slept with Emily even if they weren't together.

I deleted her message. With the machine empty, I went on my way to Rosalie's house.

Emmett may make an okay pay for being a cop/detective but their house was more than my entire life's work could afford. Rosalie and Jasper had had pretty rich parents. They'd died when the twins were young. From that moment on, the Hale twins had lived a nightmare. Their aunt had been given them to watch after until they reached eighteen.

The woman had spent more time trying to syphon all the money she could before the twins were old enough to claim it then she did even paying the slightest bit of attention to the kids. The aunt, lucky for the Hales, was stonewalled at every legal turn and, when the twins hit eighteen, they divided up the money evenly, even sparing a few hundred for their aunt. Rosalie wanted the house and Jasper took control of the summer home.

I had to shake my awe off, as I had to do every time I saw the house, and entered into the bigger than life mansion. This house was much bigger than two people needed. I mean, they were trying desperately for kids with little luck but even with a dozen little rugrats running around, they'd still only have filled up like half the rooms.

As usual, their huge dog bound down to meet me. The snarl on her lips disappeared as soon as she recognized me and sat down at my feet patiently for me to pet her. It was much better now that they'd taught her not to jump. Having a Great Dane leap up on someone as short as me usually ended is some serious headaches.

"Good girl, Carmen." I cooed to the dog, rubbing it's floppy and uncut ears. The dog was a silvery, gray dog that was far bigger than any dog needed to be. "Who's a good guard doggie?" Carmen's tail just wagged away before a faint whistle made her perk up her ears, she whirled around, and shot off towards the kitchen.

Rosalie would never admit it, she took to calling the dog to an ugly horse, but I had the sneaking suspicion that she fed it table scraps whenever she thought no one was watching.

"Alice?" Rosalie called. I hollered back. Rosalie had been spooked a few years back when a robber had broke into the house while she was there alone. The robber had run when he'd realize that the house was occupied but it had freaked Rosalie out. That fear hadn't even disappeared when Emmett and I spent two straight weeks tracking that man down.

I found Rosalie standing over the stove and eyeing the sauce with a critical eye. Emmett was pouting, sitting on the counter, and glaring at the boiling sauce.

"Alice." Emmett stated. "I need you to help us settle an argument." I shook my head quite violently and turned on heel, ready to flee from the kitchen.

Rosalie stopped me mid flee. "No, Emmett is right. I think the sauce needs more salt but Emmett thinks it doesn't."

Emmett raised his voice, only as much as he was able to do when you have a wife like Rosalie, and said. "It's almost a hundred year old recipe! You do not tamper with a recipe that my ancestors spent so long perfecting."

"And imagine how our children will feel will they receive a recipe that is even more perfected by their very own mother." Rosalie said with a nod of her head. The argument was as good as completed when Rosalie started giving facts. Emmett gave a soft huff but knew better than to argue with Rosalie.

Considering I wasn't needed at all, I slipped into the living room to see Edward and Jasper nuzzling together on the couch. I winced at the sight, seeing how happy they were, and collapsed down on the single couch nearest to the fireplace.

We casually watched the television without speaking. We could hear the argument about the sauce come up once again but it died down as quickly as it had been brought about.

Another ten minutes and we had found ourselves sitting at the expensive table and eating the delicious sauce though, in my opinion, quiet opinion, it was just a little too salty. What do you know? Emmett was actually right about something.

"So, on this case…" Edward began before I instantly cut him off.

"Must we talk about the case?" I snapped, something quite out of my character. "I'm sure Rosalie would prefer if she didn't have to sit there and listen to us go on and on about this case." Everyone stared at me with gazes bordering disbelief with a tidbit of worry.

Rosalie nodded a little. "I agree. Thank you for your consideration, Alice." She studied me for a little while longer before she softly urged another conversation into place. This one a little easier though just as awkward. If Carmen was old enough to have pups. It shouldn't be an awkward conversation…but it was!

Jasper, being the gentleman he was, had found it the hardest to listen to and was very relieved when his phone started going off loudly. He heaved a relieved sigh and motioned towards the phone in his hand to the arguing Rosalie and Emmett.

"There aren't any male dogs in the world that are good enough for my baby girl." Emmett growled protectively. "They're all pigs in dog clothing."

"It's wolf in sheep's clothing." Rosalie corrected.

"They're that too!" Emmett grunted. "She's not old enough yet."

"You do realize it's a dog, right?" I asked after I found the conversation taking a rather amusing turn. "She doesn't care who the male is as long as she's in heat." Well, that was not the wrong thing to say at all. I sometimes forget that because they don't have any children they kind of adopted Carmen.

I was, luckily, saved from a lecture when Jasper came in, looking quite unhappy.

"What's wrong, love?" Edward asked, standing up in case he needed to embrace his lover.

Jasper held his phone up. "That was Billy." Cold realization rushed through me. "He said we're off the case." Edward let out a chocking sound and sat down in the seat.

"What?" Emmett growled. "What for?"

Jasper shot turned towards Edward, questioningly. "He said that there was a personal involvement for our team to lead a proper case. Something about Edward and High school?"

Edward ducked his head and looked properly ashamed. "Isabella and I used to go to High school together. I….She embarrassed me in front of the entire school. I hated her." I fought the urge to leap to Bella's defense because Edward's tale made her sound like a bad guy; not the agitated lesbian she had been back there.

"That actually explains a lot." Emmett commented. "I was wondering what she'd done to bother you so much. I'm sorry she was a bitch to you." Edward looked grateful and happy to hear someone's condolences.

Okay, that was it. "Really? That's how it happened?" I questioned, glaring at Edward. "Cause Carlisle told me a story kind of like that, only in his story, she wasn't a bad person. You were."

Edward sat up. "You don't know what you are talking about?" He snapped. "That was the most humiliating thing I've ever been through."

"You know about this, Alice?" Jasper asked.

"Eddie-boy here had the crush of a century on Isabella in high school. He tried asking her out again and again and, with each time he asked, she was a little less kind when turning him down. Finally, the oaf asked her out in front of the entire school and, obviously, she turned him down."

"Look." Edward huffed. "It doesn't matter what actually happened…"

"Of course it does." I disagreed. "Stop making Isabella sound like some fiend when you were in the wrong back then." Edward and I rarely argued. In fact, I rarely argued with anyone but…well when it came to a sex goddess, you sometimes found yourself acting like a different person.

"Hold it." Rosalie snarled, warningly. "I will not have two cops fight in my kitchen. I heard that stress is bad for someone who is ovulating and hoping to make a child the same night!" Emmett let out an embarrassed groan and hid his slightly reddened face. He was open about is sex life, most guys were, but Rosalie…she was just on a different level of openness. That and Emmett couldn't hear the words period, ovulating, or any other words specifically for a female without turning red.

"I'll admit, I should have respected Isabella being gay." Edward admitted. "But she didn't have to get angry and tell me that I couldn't keep chasing her to keep the illusion of being straight to myself. "

"Isn't that what you were doing?" Jasper asked.

Edward frowned. "She pretty much outed me in front of the entire school."

"Okay, she probably shouldn't have done that." I admitted. "But Billy was right to take us off this case. Did Isabella being innocent cross your mind? What was that little thing we were taught? 'Innocent till proven guilty?'"

"I just want to know how Billy found out in the first place." Emmett commented.

"I told him." I said, blushing when my voice trembled slightly. The looks on their face made me feel bad. "What was I supposed to do? It was the right thing to do."

Edward looked properly horrified. "How could you? Do you realize what you could have done? This could go on my permanent record and it'll make people think I can't separate my personal life from work. I thought you were my friend?!"

"You can't separate your personal life from work!" I shot back, standing up. "This isn't about me against you. This is about me being for Bella."

"Bella?!" Edward asked, his eyes looked raged. Seriously, why did she have to tell me I could call her Bella? Me saying that name was just causing problems. "Sure didn't take you long to start shagging the suspect, did it?"

I trembled slightly. "You know I would never do that and if you don't, then you don't know anything about me." My muscles were trembling softly. I was angry and hurt at the same time. "I won't apologize for it." A silence fell over the room that was so filled with tension that I was so surprised that glass wasn't cracking and mirrors weren't blowing up around the house.

I turned to Rosalie who just looked surprised by the entire fight. "Thank you for the dinner, Rose." I gave a gesture to the half consumed dinner. "It was really good." Rose gave a nod though she did look like she wanted me to stay.

"Isabella is guilty." Edward said sternly. "It's not that ancient grudge talking but all my years as a policeman." I just gave a dismissive gesture over my shoulder as I walked away. My jaw was so tense that I could hear my teeth creaking in protest.

I slammed into that car so hard that the car shook. I sped forward, tires screeching, right towards Cirque D' Reject. I don't know what that was my destination. Some part of me, I guess, remembered how happy that place made me as a kid, so maybe it could make me better now.

The security men let me in without a care in the world, obviously recognizing me from before, and I went in search of the source of my problems.

Well, I started in search of my problems when I ran into Aro Volutri first. The man was unique, I decided, when I first saw him. He had raven black hair and almost white skin and the most childish expression I think I've ever witnessed before in my life.

He clapped his hands and stared at me. "You must be the Alice, Bella has told me about. I believe her exact words were 'If a cute pixie looking cop comes in here, let her do whatever she pleases. That's the only one with any sense.'" Aro gave me a good long look before nodding approving. "Well, she's usually a good judge of character, so I welcome you warmly to Cirque D' Reject."

He held his arm out and I took it with an amused smile. All of my anger vanished at the man's charming smile and the liveliness of the circus. I even found myself warming up to the man considerably.

"What can I do to help you?" Aro asked. "I do hope this is a personal visit. I'm sure Bella would be quite happy with that."

I chuckled and nodded. "Me and my team have been taken off the case." Aro went to offer his condolences but I interrupted him. "I was the one who suggested it. Apparently, one of our team leaders has a secret hatred towards Bella that's been quite damaging to the case."

Aro grinned widely at me. "I like you." It wasn't perverted or romantic, I could tell that, so I smiled back widely. "If you are not here to continue your investigation and, I have the feeling you aren't here to invite Bella on a date, what are you doing here?"

I gave a small shrug. "I got in a fight with my team and just didn't want to go home to my cats. It's a circus. I though…maybe…I could find something to cheer me up. I realize that I may not be welcome but the show doesn't start for three days…"

"It's fine." Aro assured me. "I don't have time to show you around personally, I do regret, but I can direct you to where Bella is practicing. Simply tell her, I give her the day off to make a sensible and good cop feel better."

After some pretty detailed directions, I found Bella in a different arena than last time. She and Jane were dancing, fire in both their hands, and it looked like they were tossing the fire back and forth between them. I thought they were just tossing something that was on fire to each other but, suddenly, the fire died in the air but nothing came down; no dust, ash, or burnt material. Bella then danced away from Jane, her movements seductive in nature, before she whirls around to face Jane and lets out a stream of fire at Jane. The fire was beautiful velvet red.

Jane responded by spewing a similar fire. It was an impressive blue fire. The fire's met in the middle before the fires started to rise towards the ceiling.

The fire stopped and Bella stepped back. "Not bad, Jane." You could see the girl nearly swell and bask in the praise from her mentor. She gave Bella smile that could light up a whole town and did a little jig where she was standing. Bella rolled her eyes before she caught sight of me.

Bella tilted her head before pointing me out to Jane. I walked into the middle of the arena and gave them both a meek smile. Bella gave me a once over, not even trying hide the fact she was checking me out, and gave me a wolfish grin.

Jane coughed and Bella looked at her. Jane just rolled her eyes. Apparently, they weren't close enough to understand each other's thoughts well enough.

"You know, I'm flattered you came all this way because you missed me." Jane purred playfully, making Bella choke on a laugh. I arched an eyebrow at Jane to see mirth swimming in her eyes. She then turned to Bella. "Oh my gosh, didn't Alice tell you? We're dating." Jane proclaimed, throwing an arm around my shoulders and starting to lead me away.

"Haha." Bella snorted. "Real funny, kid. Release the 'too old for you' lady and get over here."

"Sorry, babe. The boss is being a real….Ouch! I was going to say sweetheart!" Jane grumbled , rubbing her shoulder in the place Bella and whacked her, and backing away from me with a huge grin on her face. Bella gave her an incredulous look and motioned towards a small fire burning in the middle of the arena. Jane groaned before sitting down by it and started trying to do the snake thing I'd seen Bella do in my car.

Bella turned towards me. "Sorry to take your Romeo away but she's got training to do. Ya need something, cutie?"

"I'm looking for something to cheer me up from a massive fight. You think you, a circus brat, could help me out?"

Bella rubbed her neck thoughtfully. "I don't know. What do I get if I take the time off to entertain you?" She took a step closer with a coy smile on her lips.

"You're really making a sad girl sleep with you just to get you to show her around the circus?" I asked in surprise.

"I was going for a date but thanks for making me sound like a total pig." Bella grumbled and pouted; crossing her arms in a way where I could see the delicate muscles flex. It should seriously be illegal to be that hot.

Bella then told me to wait a moment before she went to converse with Jane. Jane actually looked upset that I was taking her mentor from her for a split second before she grinned and shrugged. "You can have her for today but, seriously, I'm starting to get fat with this lack of practicing." She slumped down next to the fire. Bella ruffled her hair before she ushered me out of the tent.

"Alright, copper." She looked around. "Whatcha wanna do?"

"I don't know. You actually live here. You tell me."

Bella looked around. She actually looked like she wasn't entirely sure. "Wow, I've been here for so long that this stuff isn't really interesting to me anymore." She thought about it for a little while longer before she grinned. "I know!"

Bella brought me across the circus, she has a twisted idea of fun, to a tiger's cage. I stared at her for a long while, thinking she was suddenly going to start laughing or say she was joking but she just stared at me.

"I'm not going in there." I stated as she began to unlock the cage. She held the door closed with her foot, grabbed my arm and jerked me into her grasp. I let out a startled yelp and started struggling to get out of her grasp.

There was no doubt in my mind now that she was a murderer now. Yup, I was going to be her latest victim and going to be mauled by a tiger. That's what I get for running to a murderer to cheer me up.

I desperately tried to remove myself from her arms by kicking and moving my shoulders, but she didn't even budge.

Suddenly, I twisted myself out of her grasp and landed on my back. I opened my eyes to come face to face with that tiger. I prepared for impending death when I heard a rather strange sound for a tiger, about to attack, to make.

I peeked through my eyelids to see the tiger rubbing its massive head against Bella's stomach and that girl was just smirking at me as she itched the creature behind its ears.

"Have a nice trip?" Bella asked with a smirk. I glared at her and began to shake out my clothing. I guess, now that the adrenaline had worn off and I actually looked at the situation, Bella wouldn't kill me here. There were people all around, granted they were laughing at me, but they would have been a witness.

"You scared me." I huffed angrily. "You could have explained to me he was friendly!" Bella just laughed at me and walked over to help me to her feet.

"It wouldn't have made you feel better unless it was a surprise." Bella teased. The tiger walked into my stomach, scaring me slightly, and the tiger shook his giant head in surprise. "Alice meet Eleazar. Eleazar meet Alice."

I eyed Bell before I leaned down and scratched the gorgeous creature. It really was an odd feeling to be petting one of nature's top predators like it was a common house cat.

"Eleazar here was seized from a tiger enthusiast down in Colorado." Bella threw a leg over the tiger and wrapped her arms around his massive neck. Eleazar let out a snort and started to back up, trying to throw Bella from his back playfully.

"Aren't you afraid of him?" I asked, slightly weary when Eleazar twisted his body and knocked Bella off. He then started batting Bella around with his paws and nibbling on her shoulder.

"Yeah, he's going to gum me to death." With that, she pulled back his jaws to reveal that he lacked all teeth. "Sad, isn't it? He doesn't have any claws either."

"That's horrible." I glared at her. "Why would you guys do that to animals?" I would have gone full rant on her but she just shook her head and kissed the tiger on the snout.

"His old owner took out his teeth and claws so he wouldn't be a danger to anybody. He wanted a tiger but not the danger that came with it." Eleazar batted Bella and came to me, studying me curiously. "No other circus' or zoos wanted to take him because he'll have to be a special diet for the rest of his life and he couldn't be released into the wild, so we took him. We don't really show him to outsiders because we don't want anyone seeing it and doing it to another wild animal."

I played with Eleazar for a while. I didn't tell Bella I had thought for a moment she was going to kill me because she was being a totally cool right now and I didn't want to hurt her feelings. After being completely covered with spit and fur, Bella and I said our goodbyes to Eleazar and headed away.

"Feeling any better?" Bella asked, picking some fur off of my shirt.

"Much." I gave her a grin that she returned just as brightly. "Thank you."

"While we are on our way to the next 'my day sucks, make it feel better' event, want to tell me about that fight?"

So, I did. Bella was a hard person to tell it too though. It wasn't because it was about her or anything but because she was the queen of rude and snide comments that reduced me to a fit of giggles for about thirty seconds.

When I was done, Bella gave me a killer grin. "You're fighting with your friends because you think I'm innocent?" I nodded and watched as Bella looked at me in awe. "Your parents raised you right." She grinned at me. "Ya got a taller sister?"

I gasped and hit her as hard as I possibly could. She let out a pained yelp and grabbed her upper arm. "Damn, you cops hit hard." She groaned. I felt a little bad because I hit her hard enough to hurt my hand.

"My mommy says I'm the perfect height." I sulked.

Bella stopped rubbing her arm. I think she realized that she'd hit a sensitive topic without meaning to. "She's right." Bella supplied, turning me so I had to face her. "This is the perfect height." Her hands dropped to my hips, she pulled me to her, and looked down at me with a crooked smile. "I like having to duck down to kiss my girl."

I must have blushed three types of red and Bella just smirked at me, looking far too pleased with herself at the moment. I shoved her away and glared at her. She took a step away from me and put her hands in her back pockets.

"I don't want to spend any more time with you." I growled, turning to head back to my car. Bella laughed and walked beside me. "I mean it." I warned. "I'm leaving now. Stop following me." Bella just kept that smile on her face as she matched me step for step.

"I enjoyed our date." Bella said with a grin. I gaped and turned to look at her to see if she was being serious or not. Bella just winked at me. "What? You deny it's a great date? I'm even being gentleman enough to walk you to your car."

"This is not a date." I told her sternly.

"No?" Bella huffed and dramatically dropped her shoulders. "So, I don't get a goodbye kiss? Way to make me feel sad now." I chuckled at her. Bella walked me to my car, trying to get me to admit it was indeed a date the entire time, and being a good sport when I told her it wasn't.

I went to close the car door but Bella caught it right before it closed. "So, will ya?" She asked.

I blinked. "Will I what?"

Bella grinned. "Go on a real date with me?" I really should

n't have been surprised that she had asked me. She'd been hitting on me since I gave her that ride home. But I guess I didn't expect Bella to actually try to do something…official about it. I'd thought she'd just try to get me in bed and that'd be it but she was actually wanting to date me.

I was no longer working her case, so, while it would be looked down upon in the department, I could date Bella if I wanted. I gave her a grin. "Yes. I'll go on a date with you."

She lit up with a grin. "Cool. I'll ask ya later."

"Why don't you ask me now?"

Bella tilted her head. "Ya just want me to ask you like that? No. That's not my style, beautiful. I'm a performer which means when I actually like a girl enough to ask her on a date, I've got to go all out; roses, songs, fireworks…"

"Fireworks?" I asked fearfully.

"Okay, so no fireworks." She gave a shrug. "I've already got your number. I'll be asking ya out later." Bella was about to turn around before she ducked into the car and placed a kiss on my cheek, pretty close to my mouth.

My stomach exploded in butterflies that settled in my chest. I don't think that stupid smile came off my face the entire ride until that call came over my radio some ten minutes later.

_All available units! All available units. Respond to an active shooting at the fairgrounds on the west side of town. Several reported wounded. All available units…._


	4. Chapter 4

I flew into the tent just in time to see a tall, lithe man wave his gun around and yank Bella out of the line of circus people and force her to his knees in front of him and his partner. You'd expect her to be afraid but she looked up at those men as if she was in the one in charge. Her hands were behind her back like they were cuffed.

I instantly ducked behind an animal transportation crate.

"Is this her?" The tallest one asked, pushing Bella's head back to get a better look at her face. The other one held a picture next to her face.

The other studied the picture for a moment. "I don't know. How about we just shoot her and then come back if it's not her later. The cops are gunna be here any second. Shoot her and lets go." I was ready to spin around when one of the men suddenly yelped as Bella rolled on her back and donkey kicked the larger of the two men in the stomach.

A gun shot went off from the startled man as he flew backwards. I whirled around the corner and aimed my gun at the other man. "Police! Police! Drop the gun now! Drop it now!" The standing gunner whirled towards me, his gun taking aim, so I let out two shots.

He went down. I turned my gun to the other gunman to see that he'd dropped his gun when Bella had kicked him in the stomach.

A dark skinned man grabbed the gun and shakily pointed it at the two perps. I kept the gun on the downed but unhurt man and checked the shot one. He wasn't breathing. I didn't really take it to heart and kept my gun aimed at the living one.

"On your back!" I commanded, totally wishing I wasn't in my civilian clothes and without handcuffs. The man rolled over. "Hands on your head!" He did that too. I saw Heidi rush forward to look at Bella. She grabbed the cuffs off of Bella and tossed them to me.

I cuffed the man quickly. "How is she?" I asked Heidi. I was becoming concerned because I wasn't hearing any sarcastic comments coming from the girl.

"There's blood." Heidi whispered shakily. The circus man with the gun stepped forward and sat down on the man's back.

"I got em." The man said. "Go check on Bella." I gave him a quick grin and slid down next to Bella. Heidi moved backwards to give me unlimited access to Bella. It took a single moment for me to realize that Bella had indeed been shot, shot in the head.

"God!" I whispered in horror. I started shifting through her hair, looking for her wound. I found that the right side of her head was completely bloody. I shrugged off my jacket and put it to the side of her head. She was breathing so it hadn't gone through her head but I couldn't find the injury.

Suddenly, the circus people came to life. Most of them were on cellphones calling for an ambulance while the others were cussing at the downed man. Even a few were standing next to the dead one, making sure he really was dead.

"Bella!" Jane fought her way from behind the other with Aro on her tail. "Bella!" She collapsed down next to Bella, her face buried in her mentor's stomach. Aro put a hand on Jane's back but was yelling about getting the circus doctor here who, a person yelled, wasn't here.

I kept the jacket on the side of her head, listening to Jane blubber incoherent thoughts to her mentor's prone figure, and desperately clutched at the clothing Bella adored. I couldn't tell if she looked like a lover or a sister mourning.

Finally, the other police officers came. Edward was among them and he looked surprised to see me there, holding a completely stained blue jacket to Bella's head. I glared at him before a paramedic pushed me out of the way.

"I…I wanna come." Jane whispered when the paramedics lifted Bella up. The unconscious girl let out a slight moan. The paramedics nodded and motioned for Jane to come with him. She looked over her shoulder.

"You coming?" She whispered shakily. "I'm sure Bella would like it if you came." I think she wanted to say something more but sobs overtook her voice.

"I have reports to do." I told her softly. "I'll swing by later." Jane nodded and followed after her mentor. Aro yelled something about meeting them at the hospital and more than half of the circus performers ran towards their cars to follow the ambulance out that had Bella and a few other performers that had been injured in it; the other half ran around to relocate their loved ones or to calm down the upset animals.

I turned to the highest ranked officer, Seth Clearwater, and gave him my version of the things and how'd they gone down. He seemed impressed when I told him that Bella had taken down one of the men herself while having her hands handcuffed.

When we were finishing up our conversation, Heidi came up. She had opted to stay here instead of go with Bella for many reasons; she was sick from the sight of blood earlier and had one of the better vantage points for the entire thing considering she'd been involved in it all.

We brought her over to sit down on a large medicine balls; they couldn't get any seats but they had found mountains of these medicine balls, so everyone was resting on the ground or on the brightly colored balls.

Seth waited until Heidi had taken some water and had started regaining some color in her cheeks before he simply asked her to describe what had happened in her own words.

Heidi closed her eyes, seemed to think over it all, and then started to speak with soft words. "We were doing our weekly share…"

"Weekly share?" Seth questioned. "What's that?" Now it may seem that he's being rude but in fact, he's being a good policeman. He's making her slow down and elaborate on things, so her mind slows down its pace and really thinks.

"It's when the circus splits into two different arenas. We're split based on our abilities. Each performer displays what they plan to during the show. It's done as if thousands of people were watching them. At the end of it, they get an okay or no way from the other performers and some critique. It's actually pretty fun."

Seth nodded. "Okay, thank you for clearing that up. Please continue with your story."

"Well, we were doing our weekly share. I was in tent 1 with the other animals based performances when we heard two loud bangs. We all thought something had gone wrong with one of the acts and swarmed towards tent 2."

"What?" Seth interrupted again. "Why'd you all run _towards _the gunshot? Shouldn't someone have thought it might be dangerous?"

Heidi shook her head. "Not really. You see, we're pretty old schooled down here; you know, trying to keep the art of being a real circus alive. So we have actual tents that we set up. There's no way to connect communication devices between tents. So, when an act goes wrong, practice or other, surrounding people hit those gongs. One hit means slight danger like a horse has gotten lose and is charging people," _That's slight danger?! _"Two hits mean assistance is required like someone is hurt or something's gone wrong. Everyone usually shows up because we can't tell what skills are need. Three hits means 'danger! Stay away!'"

"So, I'm guessing two hits was heard?"

Heidi nodded. "We were a little on edge too. Bella had this new trick she wanted to try out where she was going to have her hands cuffed behind her back, searched by an audience member to make sure it was legit, and then be tied up to a cross like a witch and be burned. Problem is, it's a really, really tricky and a dangerous trick. We heard the bangs and thought Bella had been hurt."

"That'd explain why Bella's hands were cuffed behind her back." I mused out loud. Heidi nodded.

"Continue with your story."

"We all ran into the tent and by the time we say the man with the gun, the other man had already gotten to the other exit. They yelled at us to get to the wall. They wanted our hands up and no funny business . They kept swinging their hands around and yelling a lot. Jacky made a move towards one of his swords. One of the men went to shot him but the other…they knew what the three bangs would mean, so they just kicked him in the head instead." Heidi seemed to be struggling to remember something. Seth and I knew better than to try to force the memories now. Anything we say could become impressionable and ruin the real memory.

"They had this paper…a picture, I think. They were walking around and looking at everybody. Finally, they grabbed one of our performers and shoved her from the rest. They said something…and they seemed to think she was a vampire cause that's what they called her. Well, Bella yelled at them that she was the vampire and they pulled her up. They couldn't seem to decide if she was it or not. They were going to shoot her but she," Heidi gave a fond smile, "Just lying there and being shot wasn't her style. She rolled to her back and slammed both her feet into the man's gut that was going to shoot her. He was off his feet. Then…Alice came and you know the rest."

Seth tried to get her to elaborate further. She tried a few times but, when she came to the part about Bella bleeding, she started sobbing, so I shushed Seth off to torture someone else while Heidi's friends came and comforted her.

I went and looked down on the bloody spot that Bella had been lying in and wished I had Jane's number so I could call and get an update. I shook my head of the thought and went to stand behind the crate with my unloaded gun like I'd done when I'd first came on the scene.

It was a technique Billy created. He thought that we remembered more things then we actually 'remembered' but our minds deemed them unimportant at the time. However, when faced with a similar event, they would recall those unimportant memories as a reference on how to act now.

I did the test a few times, getting weird looks from the witnesses, until I came to the conclusion that I hadn't forgotten anything important; unless you counted the smell of wet animal.

"You know," Edward spoke lowly, "You could have been really hurt." I wanted to act childish and be like 'Talk to the hand' but I was a cop, he was my leader, and people were around that I'd just given the impression of badass cop and wasn't looking to ruin.

I gave a stiff nod, wishing I had something to do, but after a quick survey, I noticed that since so many cops had come to the call that there were some left over. I was finally given a break from Edward's soft spoken lecture, which I paid absolutely no attention to, when Seth came over requesting my weapon for investigation. It was standard when a death was involved.

Another, different cop, came over and asked for my statement once again. I calmly told it again as I remembered it. I was going to see Bella but Seth asked me if I would consider going downtown with him to interrogate the remaining perp.

Seeing a chance for revenge, I nodded. Bella would live or die if I was there or not but my expert interrogation skills at this critical point could find out why Bella was attacked. It was all I could do at the moment that would matter in the long run.

The drive downtown was pretty fast. It was common knowledge that if you could interrogate a suspect quickly and before they had a chance to think up an airtight excuse or story, they were much easier to get the truth out of.

We walked into the interrogation room right when the man was trying to come up with that story if his total concentration was any clue. He seemed surprised to see me again and glanced where my holster was.

He couldn't see that I didn't have a gun on me. I gave him a predatory smile. You see, I may not be able to talk to people or get on their good sides but that just made me all the better at interrogation. People just had this fear of me; the angry little dwarf.

"You….you killed him." The man accused. The man was a redhead with an alcoholic redness to both his nose and cheek. His teeth were disfigured and stained a permanent yellow. He truly was an ugly sight to behold.

I shrugged and sat down quietly. "Rather him than the girl he was going to shoot." I opened folder that had been handed to me right outside the door. The Denali sisters had got this guy on a past record and his fingerprints.

"Dunkin O'Riley?" I asked. What an odd name. Apparently he knew it to because he just scowled slightly.

"It's Irish." He gestured to his red head. I guessed his hair and name had caused him some grief in the past.

"Arrested in 04 for posting on the internet that you were a contract hit man and would kill anyone for a reasonable price. You seriously put that on the internet? It says here, the hit man's website was under _ ._" I rubbed my neck and wondered how stupid he was. "So, I'm guessing the man I killed was the brains of the operation."

Dunkin sneered at me and crossed his uncuffed hands across his chest. He seemed to have chosen silence as his best choice. I was just happy he didn't know that he could have a request for a lawyer.

"So, was it his idea or yours to kill Isabella Swan?" I questioned.

"Who?" He questioned. "Oh, you mean Vampyre?" At my questioning look, he smugly explained. "Not so dumb now am I? Vampire type things. Don't know the difference. Brown haired girl…nice ass." Oh Lord, give me the strength not to shot him there. "Besides, she wasn't in any trouble."

"Not any trouble?" I questioned. "You do realize she's in the hospital with a gunshot to the head?"

Dunkin shrugged. "If she had just stuck to the plan we wouldn't have really shot her. She just broke character and started karate kicking people."

"Stuck to what plan?" A cold feeling had settled into my stomach. This didn't look good for the innocence of Isabella Swan.

"The plan." Dunkin repeated. He then rolled his eyes. "Vampyre, or whatever that Cinderella girl's name you just mentioned…"

"Isabella?"

"Yeah, Isabella. Well her email is AVampyreFire at something dot com. She emails us and says that some cops are suspecting her for some murders she committed and she needs them off her tail. We were supposed to shoot her in the hand to make it look like she was victim and not the killer. So, I wasn't actually going to kill her and you can't book me for it."

"Do…do you have any proof to this claim?" I begged that he didn't. If he did, I don't think Bella will be getting back to me on that date during this lifetime. That or we could date at the federal prison's cafeteria.

The man smirks. "Sure do. See, not stupid. I kept all the emails."

Two hours later, Tanya comes out with a bright smile on her face. She drops a pile of papers on my table. I don't want to ask because I really don't want to know. Tanya decided to explain anyways.

"Well, with these papers you can put Isabella 'Pain in our asses' Swan in jail until she rots or gets the needle." Tanya looks thoughtful. "Though I've never known how to react lethal injection."

"What are these?" I questioned, flipping through the papers.

"Well, I know you guys aren't in the case anymore but I'd figured you'd like to see them before I gave them to the other team. These are the email between a Ms. AVampyreFire and our goons. Everything the nitwit said was true. There is an intricate plan that was laid out to make it look like she the target, a plan for them to escape, and it even tells them to only fire twice and not three times, so no one calls the cops."

I felt my heart drop in my chest. "And AVampyreFire is most definitely Bella's email?"

"Yup." Tanya smugly said. "Kate and I were able to even get in her email by following…" Tanya paused, "Okay, you won't understand why I'm about to say, so let's just say we found a cyber-trail from Isabella's email to the goons. Obviously, she deleted all the information about those emails surprisingly good for someone not in computers but..well." Tanya shrugged. She seemed a little confused that I wasn't jumping for joy and seemed a little depressed about the news.

"Thanks." I whispered. I handed her the papers so she could bring them to the current team. I finally brought myself to go to the hospital to say my goodbyes to Bella. Part of me kind of wished that she was dead. It was mean but it was a fact.

It almost a heartbreaking sight to see so many people waiting outside Bella's room while the others were in there. Aro saw me and waved me over.

"What are you doing here?" He asked gently.

I couldn't tell him that I was here to…well, I'm not sure what I was going to do. Slapping her, kisses her, or telling her to go die in a hole all seemed like good options. I just settled for, "I just wanted to see how she was."

Aro nodded and motioned at an empty seat beside him. "The doctors just left. The bullet on grazed her and only even brushed against the skull once." Well, she wasn't dead. "She lost a lot of blood but they got her on blood. She should wake up soon."

I gave a fake smile. "That's good to hear." Aro asked about the men and why they had come after Bella but I merely stated that I could not reveal the information because it was part of an ongoing investigation. Aro gave me a suspicious look until Jane burst out of the room.

"Uncle Aro!" She called. "She's awake!" I watched Aro get up and zoom into the room. A lot of the performers tried to go in at once which horrified one of the nurses. She rushed over and said that she could only have three visitors at once.

I had my chance to go in quite a few times but declined. I still didn't know what I was going to say to her. That feeling of confusion was only increased when two policemen stationed themselves outside her door.

A few of the circus folk were happy to see them there, thinking they were there to protect her. Little did they know, they were there to escort Bella to jail and make sure she didn't flee. Finally, the last visitor, Jane, left the room.

She walked up to me. "Visiting hours are almost over and the flipping nurses won't allow us to stay because we aren't family." Jane glared at a retreating nurse. "Her family doesn't care about her, you bitch." Jane turned back to me. "You should go see her before you're forced to leave the hospital." Jane then proceeded to stomp out of the hospital, glaring at every person she passed.

I sat there for a moment before getting up. The cops just glanced at me, dipped their head in greeting, and continued standing there. I walked into the hospital room to see Bella sitting up and, adorably, playing with the buttons on her bed.

Bella looked up when I walked in and gave a grin. "I'm trying to find the button that makes the nurse bring me beer." She pushed a button and the bottom part of her bed jumped, scaring us both. "I want one of these." Bella commented before putting it back to normal.

I went and sat by her side. A strip of hair had been shaved away so they could stitch up her head. I could see a stitch sticking out under the bandage wrapping around her head.

Bella saw me staring at the missing hair and she shrugged. "I figure I can get one of those weird hairstyles where part of the head is completely shaved. Never thought I'd get one but I think I could pull it off." Bella stared at me for a moment. "Cat stitched your mouth together?"

"What?" I finally spoke and, despite myself, a small grin played on my lips.

"Cat stitched your mouth together." Bella repeated. "I figure 'Cat got your tongue' is so overused. I simply refuse to use it. But seriously, why are so quiet? You're not waiting for me to thank you for saving my life are you? Cause I simply won't do it. I'm not good with thank yous. I'll simply be double the gentleman on our date."

I finally sighed. "We know what you did." I leveled her with a studying gaze. She looked completely baffled before realization crossed her features. She looked fearful. Good, I thought.

"She told me she was eighteen!" Bella defended. My shoulders dropped and I had to fight an exasperated smile. Okay, so apparently she didn't have any idea what I was talking about. "It was not my fault. She had a fake license and everything. She was in a club where you had to be eighteen."

"That's not what I'm talking about." I gave a weak chuckle. "We know about the plan." Bella looked relieved until she realized what I'd said and she looked curious.

"What plan?" She asked curiously. I waited for her to touch the side of her head, the product of such plan, and a sure tell that she was guilty. She just tilted her head at me, her hands on her lap, and urged me with her eyes to explain.

"We found the emails you'd sent to the hit man that attacked the circus." I spit out. "You admitted to killing the girls in those emails and you needed them to shoot you to get us off your tail." I finally was able to level her with the glare I'd been attempting for the entire time.

She stared at me for a long while. "This isn't a funny joke." Bella growled.

"It's not a joke."

Bella suddenly took a deep breath before she studied me. "You are no better than the rest." She looked hurt only for a second. "I thought… I thought you believed me. I didn't do it. I didn't do it. I didn't do it." I could tell she was becoming upset but I didn't get up to comfort her.

"We have the proof Isabella." She winced as I used her full name. "You are going to spend the rest of your life in jail."

She looked up. She was completely furious and there were actually tears of frustration welling in her chocolate brown eyes. "I'm being fucked over." She gave a watery laugh. "I should have known better than to let a cop in my house. Did you go through my laptop then? Did you send those emails then?" She looked utterly betrayed and if I didn't know this was an act, I would have believed that she really thought I'd sent the letter to put her in jail. "You better tell them what you did. I will not go to jail because you cops used dirty methods."

I stood to my feet and nearly growled at her. "You're going to jail for being a murderer. I can't believe I thought….Gah! I hope you rot in jail!" I snarled and whirled out of the room. As if feeling me leave, the two cops came in.

They moved aside so I could leave. "We just the okay from the doctor to take her for booking." I nodded, not even caring anymore. I nodded.

"I guess I'll see you guys down there." I said softly. I got in my car. I drove fast, the way I do when I'm upset. Out of all of this, I only saw a single silver lining; we'd found out she was guilty before I could fall completely and utterly in love with her.

I found Edward, Jasper, and Emmett in the break room. They seemed apprehensive of what I was going to say. I knew that Tanya would have already conveyed them the news of Bella's emails.

"I'm sorry." I admitted softly. I wanted to cry so badly but I barely kept it in. Emmett glanced over at the others with curious eyes.

Edward gave a soft, loving smile. "It's okay. You were right. You did the right thing."

I shook my head but couldn't make myself look into their eyes. "You were right. Isabella did do it."

Edward stood up and embraced me. "That may be true but she could just have easily been innocent and she never would have stood a chance. I was mad. But what you said at dinner was completely right." I clutched onto him.

Jasper must have sensed how upset I was because the second Edward let go of me, he swooped me up. "A broken heart sucks, huh?" I nodded into his chest. "I'm sorry she…"

"Played me?" I whispered. "Used my feelings to try to make herself seem innocent?" Jasper nodded and kissed the top of my head. Emmett was the last to hug me. Of course, his was brief and tight before he pulled away, gave a huge smile, and clapped his hands together.

"I know what'll make you feel better!" He cheered. "They're about to bring Isabella through. Why don't we go watch? You put that murderer behind bars." He said helpfully. Jasper leveled him with a glare. Apparently, he realized that that sight probably wouldn't sooth my aches at all.

Even so, I nodded. "Yeah, lets." I'm not sure why I agreed but I did. Emmett brought me to what we call the bullpen. We call it that because that's where cops off the clock hang out until they go home. It's also where the criminals are brought through on their way to their temporary holding cells until they can be transferred.

I jumped atop a desk. The person on the desk, Charlie, gave a tired smile. Charlie was a cop that was on his way rather to the top or being retired. "They bringing someone through?" Charlie asked, gesturing to the rather large crowd of spectators that were waiting in the bullpen.

I nodded. "Isabella Swan." I left it at that. Charlie must have wanted more information than he was getting from me because he turned to another officer to get the rest of the details. Finally, everyone moved to get a better look because here came Bella.

Her hands where cuffed behind her and she was being pushed forward by an Emmett sized man. Usually rapist and murderers are treated a little harsher than other and I've never cared before but I found myself worried as Bella was being subjected to that treatment. Should she even be walking? She was unconscious an hour ago.

The man behind her, by complete accident I'm sure, stumbled. He let go of her hands. Bella only rolled her shoulders to relieve the sore muscles but one of the watching men took it as a threatening position because the next thing I knew Bella was slammed into a desk. She hissed in pain and a single small stream of blood leaked down by her eyebrow.

"Careful, Jackass!" She snarled at the man. "And you, the buffoon. How hard is walking?!" The man smiled sheepishly under his friend's snickers but he did this a lot and didn't get too embarrassed. Without offering an apology, he roughly grabbed Bella's wrists and continued to walk with her.

Her eyes passed mine. She lingered for a moment, chocolate eyes shining in disgust, before she turned her eyes forward. It shouldn't have hurt to know that murderer disliked me but it did…a lot. A few man taunted her but she just looked at them like she pitied them. I'm sure it was a blow to their ego.

When Bella was out of sight, I finally took my first real breath. "Wow." Someone said. "That was the hottest girl I've ever seen in my life!"

"The hot ones are the ones you've got to look out for." Another person called. Someone yelled that they didn't care if she was crazy or not, she looked like she'd be fun in bed. I just scowled before leaving. Like I predicted, this had not improved my mood at all.

I grabbed my jacket, bid goodbye to the others, and finally went home that night. Sure, it was actually morning it was so late and I had a very busy day but, when I got home, I just laid there for a long while before sleep claimed me.


	5. Chapter 5

**I really have no excuse why I didn't update sooner because, truthfully, this has been done for months. I'm sorry for the late update but I've just been busy and kind of lost some interest in writing lately. **

The day after Bella had been taken into custody, the team and I spent the entire day going over the evidence against her for the court. I also had some time going over the man I'd killed with Billy and a few other people to make sure it really was the only thing I could have done.

As we went over the evidence, I finally started feeling better about putting Bella behind bars. It must have been my attraction to her but I could now see where Edward had been coming from. I mean, how could I have missed it? The girl that broke Bella's heart, the girl who stole her girl, and her high school bully all dead. How could it be anyone besides Bella?

I told Jasper this revelation and he told me that I needed to stop justifying my actions as if I'd done something wrong. He said I was feeling guilty and I had no reason to be. Some part of me agreed and the other part of me felt as if I had committed the greatest betrayal in my life.

I was just writing out _another _report about the shooting when I heard the squeak of Billy's wheelchair. I looked up and gave him a timid smile. I was afraid that I was going to be in trouble for whatever reason.

"Easy Alice," the man chuckled, "You're fine. I just came down to tell you that I was really impressed with you in this case. First you stood up for what you believe in and followed the rules even though it put you against your team, then you make a connection with the suspect, and you stop a shooting. Keep this up and you will go to high places."

I winced when he said 'make a connection with the suspect'. I simply hadn't done that. I'd wanted to be her friend truly and be more than that. It hadn't been about being a police, it had been personal.

"It wasn't all professional." I admitted. "If she hadn't been proved guilty, I would have probably wanted to start dating her." I expected him to be mad but he just chuckled.

"I figured as much." He gave a grin. "You aren't in trouble for it. Next time, don't allow yourself feelings for someone as…dangerous as Isabella Swan but don't stop looking for love, even if you meet her through your work."

"You sound like you've been down this road before." I commented.

"It's how I met my wife." Billy admitted with a saddish grin. Billy's wife was the sweetest girl you could ever meet but the obstacle of her husband being paralyzed from the waist down and refusing to give up his dangerous job was too much for her. She could have handled one without the other fine but both together were too hard on her.

"I didn't know that."

"I've never told you. She was the victim of an abusive husband." Billy shook his head angrily. "You know those are some of the smartest people out there, the abusive ones. They know how manipulate those they're hurting and those that would call the police that they're saints." Billy seemed to think for a moment. "A neighbor had seen him hit her and called us. I just walked in to see this gorgeous girl, cowering in the seat and looking at all of us fearfully. Even with a broken nose, she said it had been her fault and not her husbands at all. Manipulative bastard."

"How did you guys fall in love?"

"Long story short, she stabbed me." He grinned before starting to wheel away. I blinked, let out a disbelieving bark of laughter, before getting up to follow after the quickly departing man.

"Hey!" I walked beside him. "You can't leave with just that!"

Billy laughed. He continued to tell me the story on the way to his office.

"We were trying to force her husband into the patrol car. People were yelling, a cop got pushed over, and the guy shot straight for his house. She was terrified, my Sue was, and she darted into the kitchen to get a knife. I don't know what the husband, Harry, was thinking. Maybe he wanted to hurt her just one last time, kill her which is usually the ultimate pleasure for people like him, or just get inside away from the cops but I couldn't let him do it; cause any more pain to that woman.

So, I tackled him and we rolled into the living room. The man was cuffed but he put up a good fight. Sue had hidden herself in a corner. We ended up rolling into the corner and scaring her. She lashed out with the knife and slashed my side. Another cop came and got Harry while someone tried to arrest Sue.

She was so scared though. She had dropped the knife and was sobbing how sorry she was. I realized she hadn't meant it and persuaded the others of it to. She ended up being forgiven because she had been in flight of fight mode, Carlisle could tell you about that one, and we'd cut off her ability to run so she lashed out."

"How did you guys fall in love after that?" I asked as we reached the office. I opened the door and Billy rolled inside.

Billy just chuckled. "I was her hero and she nursed me back to health. I'll leave the rest up to you." I shook my head and trotted down back to the break room. I never noticed how much time we actually spent in that room. I felt much better now and it must have shown on my face because Emmett looked seriously relieved.

"Good thing, you're feeling better. You almost had a visit from Rosalie coming up."

I winced. Rosalie was big into tough love. I don't think the mental scars and trauma had disappeared from the last confrontation Rosalie and I had had when my girlfriend of two months, wonderful two months, had dumped be for no reason and I just lounged in the house for a week.

"I think I got over it just in time then." I admitted with a chuckle. I thought about telling them what Billy had told me but I figured he might want that to remain private. We stared talking like we used to before this Isabella case though I noticed they made sure to steer clear of that specific topic.

I think we could have gone the whole day without saying her name once if not for Carlisle's visit a few hours later. We were actually discussing a profile on a burglar when he came in. Edward noticed some blood on her hand.

"Yo, pop!" Edward called, his tone slightly worried. "You been cutting into people who aren't dead yet? That looks fresh."

Carlisle gave a smile. "It's not mine. Isabella Swan had a visitor yesterday that struck her. Popped all her stiches out. I just finished sewing her up."

"What visitor?" I questioned.

"Victoria Evan's husband wanted to talk to her. He said he wanted to ask her if she'd done anything inappropriate to Victoria before she died. We told him she hadn't but he needed to know for himself. He got close to her cell. Somethings where said and he reached through her cell and hit her square in the side of the head."

I winced.

Carlisle just shook his head. "I told them that she needed time to heal before she was taken in. Even if she had to be on house arrest. If that wound reopens without anyone around, she'll bleed to death."

"It wouldn't be a loss." Emmett joked.

Carlisle just looked away uncomfortably. Jasper studied him for a moment. "You still don't think she did it, do you?"

Carlisle sighed. "No. I realize that she did do it, the emails prove it but she doesn't have any of the signs of being a murderer. Truthfully, she acts more like rebellious teenager being backed into a corner."

Edward didn't push forward though I could tell he wanted to. Carlisle just gave us a smile before he left the living to join the dead. Edward rambled a bit about profiling apparently being very useless and now meaningless. I just patted his shoulder comfortingly.

Emmett studied Edward for a long while until Edward asked him what his problem was. Emmett sighed. "Dude, I have to ask. Rosalie said it was rude and would bring up bad memories but I gotta know something."

"What?" Edward asked suspiciously.

"If Isabella turned you down so many times, what prompted you to ask her out in front of the school?" Emmett asked curiously. I had to admit that it was a good question. All three of us waited for him to answer as he seemed to think over how to answer.

"Fine, I'll tell you. I was acting off bad information. Victoria Evans, yes the dead one, claimed she wanted to be helpful and had overheard something that may be useful to my quest in getting Isabella. She said she'd overheard Isabella telling Leah, who I didn't know where dating at the time, that she loved people's personalities and not genders and was a sucker for dramatic and big acts that showed you were really serious."

"And you listened to her?" Jasper questioned. That was the good thing about Jasper. He could listen about how Edward had nearly proclaimed his love for another person, a girl for that matter, and not even show a hint of jealously.

"I knew Victoria didn't like Isabella but she'd always been nice to me and…well, there were a few rumors floating around the Victoria didn't dislike Isabella as much as she let on. Someone even claimed they saw them kiss at a movies once but, well, they both were horrified with the accusation and it disappeared. I always thought, while they might not have kissed, that neither would have been opposed to it…"

"Dude, you've gone off track." Emmett commented. "I mean, I like hearing about lesbians but…."

"Sorry," Edward shook his head, "I just feel stupid now for believing Victoria and have been trying to justify that moment of stupidity to myself. Anyway, I figured I had a pleasant enough personality, she didn't care about gender, so all I needed was the grand performance. You can guess the rest."

"So why the hatred towards Isabella?" I questioned. "Why not towards Victoria?"

"Isabella was easier to hate, I guess. Less pitiful." Edward explained. "Victoria was in love with James and he wasn't exactly the nicest guy around. She was always following after him, just begging for his attention. While Isabella had people falling at her feet and a bit of a player side to her."

"Well, considering Victoria is dead and Isabella is in jail, I think you hated the right person." Jasper whispered, kissing Edward's cheek; right where Bella had kissed me goodbye. Well, there goes my streak of not thinking about Bella.

Edward's pager suddenly beeped and we were all called down to the lab. We took our time about it too. They had said it was an emergency but the last emergency we'd hurried off to, someone had been watching some highly inappropriate videos on their huge monitor and they wanted us to finger print the entire lab to find the culprit. The faster they wanted you there, the slower you wanted to go.

Finally, we ducked in and Kate began pelting us with the popcorn she had been eating. It wasn't really painful but we all groaned and moaned at her when she finally stopped. It had something to do with the fact we weren't allowed food in the lab but they were. We found it unfair.

"We said emergency." Kate growled, throwing popcorn that bounced off my cheek for good measure. "Not 'I can walk slower than a zombie-cy'!"

Jasper held his hands up to calm Kate down before another wave of popcorn could attack us. "We're here now. Sorry about the late reply. What is it you need?"

Kate just growled. "I'm not sure I want to tell you now. You did make us wait almost an hour." Emmett and I exchanged glances. Yup, this was one of those stupid things.

Irina spoke up from where she was texting on her phone. "If you don't tell them you'll lock up an innocent for the rest of their lives."

"Possibly innocent." Tanya commented from her computer. "It doesn't prove innocence; it just takes away evidence that makes them guilty."

"Well, I think we should make them do it themselves." Kate commented. "Maybe next time they'll hurry up when we ask them too."

"It'll take them years." Irina chuckled. "They're not very bright." The other two sisters nodded their agreement and looked at us with sad frowns that pretty much screamed 'what poor stupid people'.

"Okay, someone explain what's going on." Emmett demanded. The sisters sighed before Tanya pointed to the huge monitor where two emails were being compared to each other.

I recognized one of the emails. "That's the first email Bella sent to the hit man."

"It's the first email sent to the hit man, yes. Sent by Isabella, no." We all looked at Tanya with wide eyes. She rolled her eyes. "The email on the right is definitely an email written by Isabella. This one is to Aro so it's profession as is the one to hit man."

"So?" Edward asked, walking up to the monitor to look it over.

"They are nothing alike." Irina stated.

"Obviously. One is asking the boss about getting time off and the other is planning an intricate plan to throw cops of a murder's trail. They are nothing alike in matter."

"That doesn't matter." Tanya sighed. "Sure the words and the content are not the same but the way they are said should be. Look, in the one from Isabella to Aro, she uses no adjectives, she adores commas, and she separates everything into proper paragraphs."

I looked over the letter to the hit man. "You're right. This one is completely different."

"Of course we're right." Tanya huffed. "This one consists of mostly simple sentences, flowery adjectives, and only is separated into two paragraphs even though it should consist of about five. The writing style is so off, I have no doubt they were written by different people."

Emmett rubbed his neck. "Maybe that email to Aro is just different. Maybe Aro prefers to be written to like that."

Kate swallowed some popcorn but shook her head. "We just choose this letter because they were both very formal." She reached out and slowly scrolled through some more emails sent by Bella. The emails showed up on the monitor. "All of them are written in that exact same style. It varies little. She's actually a pretty good writer."

Irina nodded. "The only ones that are different are all the emails sent to the hit men."

"But they were sent from her email." Jasper stressed.

"Duh." Tanya growled. "It wouldn't look legit when the cops looked over it if it wasn't from her email. Remember when I said that the emails were erased from her email account way better than someone with no experience with computers should be able too? Well, we got to thinking. Her email address is on these emails to the hit men plain as day. If she wanted to hide the account so bad, why use her personal one?"

Kate took it from there. "We then figured that the emails weren't erased to keep from the police but from Isabella herself. She would have no idea what was going on and couldn't run to the police when she realized someone had somehow hacked into her account."

"Isabella is innocent?" I asked. Well, I'm not too sure how to feel about that.

Tanya shrugged. "I can't say for certain but I'm thinking yes. This was an obviously really good attempt to try to frame her. If we hadn't caught the difference in writing style, Isabella would have no chance in court and would be sent to jail."

"Like the crime scenes." Emmett said. "They all connect without a doubt to Isabella but there are small problems like her having an alibi and Dr. Cullen's views on her." Tanya nodded and seemed surprised by Emmett's conclusion.

Well, I better go buy an entire store of flowers because I really owe someone an apology. Wait, should I apologize? She could still be guilty. It could still be some plan…

"Wait," a thought hit me, "Why did she then react to the plan that had been decided between the criminals and whoever sent this email." I was pretty proud of myself for a moment there until Carlisle cleared his throat from the corner of the room. Where the heck did he come from?

"Sorry to startle you." He apologized. "Tanya told me that I should come down to look at some new evidence."

"He came right when he was paged." Kate commented with a glare towards us all. She wasn't going to let us live this down for a long while to come.

Carlisle chuckled at her childish behavior. "I can answer your question, Alice. You see, she only followed the plan a little bit. When the hit men took the girl and asked for AVampyreFire, she responded to the email address. She could have done it to save the girl and it was her they were after anyways, she would have known that involved or not the second the email address was mentioned. That response was the only part of the plan she followed. She was supposed to lie there and let herself get shot. Instead, she becomes panicked when she hears that she's going to be shot and goes off at her attackers."

Edward finally sighed. "If she had known what was happening that would have been stupid." I was surprised when Edward seemed like he was starting to think Isabella was innocent too. "They knew her, her plan, and the people she'd murdered by what she'd said in the email, so it would be unwise for her to betray them and by attacking them she made it more likely from them to be caught, something she shouldn't have wanted if she was involved."

Jasper groaned loudly. "Well, I feel outsmarted. Isabella isn't a suspect, she's a freaking victim. God, I feel like an ass."

"You?" I whispered. "I…God, she's never going to forgive me." Yup, time to go buy the entire store of flowers and shower them on her until she'll talk to me again. "Emmett, go tell Billy what we found out and get Bella back to a proper hospital."

Emmett was all too pleased to do it. Edward shoulders slumped and he went to apologize to his father again and again for not believing him. Carlisle said it was okay and he had even doubted himself for a while.

The Denali sisters just smirked at us as we mulled over our stupidity with that superior glint to their eyes. Emmett paged me that Isabella was going to need a ride. He said it was my chance to try to talk to her.

I was about to leave when I heard an annoyed grunt. "Sure, she goes as soon as she gets _that _page." I shook it off and shot out of the building to see someone who did not look even a sixteenth as happy to see me as I was her.

Bella glared at me from her spot next to Emmett.

"Hi Bella." I whispered softly. She just clenched her jaw and stared past me. "I'll take you to a hospital."

"I'd rather walk." She snarled and turned on her heel, completely prepared to walk to the hospital. I winced under her cold words. Emmett's eyes widened and then he just picked up Bella and put her over his shoulder.

Bella let out squeak before she started shouting profanities at the man on how he had no right to confine her like this or touch her in anyway whatsoever. Emmett just shrugged.

"I should get in some type of trouble, I guess. I put an innocent girl behind bars." He gave her a sad smile as he started towards my car.

Bella didn't soften her sneer at all. "Innocent for a few days before I'm thrown behind bars again. I know the drill. Now, put me down!" Emmett just walked over to the car, opened the door, and placed her in the seat.

I slipped into the driver's seat. She glared as Emmett leaned against the passenger door to keep her from leaving and my presence kept her from leaving through the driver side door. She flipped Emmett off before putting her seatbelt on and glaring at the dashboard.

Emmett gave her a bright smile before we drove away. Suddenly, a spark caught my attention and she was playing with fire again.

"How do you do that?" I asked, wincing when my voice trembles. "You were completely searched in jail."

"Yeah and whose fault was that?" Bella snapped.

"No ones." I snapped back. "You were being framed and someone was doing a pretty good job of it. Stop acting like you're the only victim."

Bella gaped at me. "I was thrown in jail! I've been accused of three murders in my lifetime and planning my own hit. You were a total bitch, I was slammed against a desk when I was still weak from my stay in the hospital, and I got sucker punched in the jaw."

"Well boohoo!" I told her back. I don't think I've slept well for a long while because I was trying to make her like me, not go Rosalie style on her. "Three girls are dead! Their families are in pain. We are going to be made fools of publically for arresting you when you'd done nothing wrong. Our careers are going to be hurt by it."

"Do you want me to say I'm sorry?" Bella questioned. "The only thing I ever did wrong was giving you a chance. Besides that, all I did was live."

"That hurt." I whispered because it had. That felt like a blow to the heart. "Do you think I felt okay when we thought we found proof you were a killer. I risked my friends and my reputation to date you and say you were innocent. Suddenly, I think you were just playing me to make yourself look more innocent while I was…." I clamped my mouth shut and angrily swerved around a slow driver.

"Was what?" Bella growled.

"Falling for you, you pathetic excuse of a human." I growled at her. She looked surprised by that. I don't think either of us knew what to say after that. I caught her, on more than one occasion, opening her mouth before she would stare back out at the window. I did it too. I wanted to ask if there was any way she could forgive me but I was scared of what she was going to say.

I finally got to the hospital. She gave me a nod before she got out of the car. I hesitated only a moment before I got out as well.

"No." She pointed for me to get back in the car but I just crossed my arms over my chest. "Leave."

"Nope." I sang. "I'm going to gentleman enough to walk you to your hospital room so you don't faint and hurt yourself on the way."

"I'm fine." She groaned. She looked slightly annoyed when I continued to walk with her. Now I realized why she did this to me. This was fun. She kept glancing at me and I just met every glance with a big smile.

"And what are you doing here?" Bella asked when we saw Jane coming out with a bandage over her finger. Jane looked really surprised to see Bella. She just stood there with her jaw hanging open for a long while.

"You're supposed to be in jail!" Jane declared. That didn't seem to please Bella in the slightest. She narrowed her eyes at Jane.

"You sound like you want me to be in jail."

Jane suddenly shook her head violently and a big smile came on her face. "I'm happy you're not." She leapt forward and wrapped her arms around Bella. Bella instantly smiled and held tightly onto her apprentice.

If I wasn't so suspicious of Jane's reaction right there, I think I would have been jealous. With Bella in jail, Jane would become the new flame master of the circus. That was motive. She probably could have gotten to Bella's computer and she could have easily known about the girls and their relations to Bella. That was means.

Jane pulled away and beamed at Bella before giving her a kiss right on the cheek and corner of her mouth. Bella made a startled sound. Jane then went on telling how Aro had said she was going to have to do the show until the idiot police got their wits about them and released her. Jane looked like she was really relieved she wasn't going to have to do the show. She said she realized she was nowhere near ready.

Bella just kissed her forehead, much to Jane's delight and my displeasure, and told her she was sure that Jane could have pulled it off. Jane then went to tell her that she'd tried some type of trick called _The Dragon's Fire_ and had her hands a little too close to her mouth and been burned a little.

After that, Jane waved goodbye, kissed Bella on the cheek again, and left. I glared at the girl as she left. I hope she's it so I can throw her in jail. Bella went and got a hospital room to wait for a doctor.

"And what was that?" I demanded when Bella had sat down. She looked startled at my outburst and then amused before a little confused.

"I'm not entire sure." Bella admitted. "Jane has never kissed me before." She shrugged before lying back down on the bed.

"She didn't kiss you." I mumbled jealously. "She kissed your cheek."

"Big difference." Bella snorted.

"It is a difference." I sat on the edge of her bed. "Do you like her?" I asked fearfully. Bella sat up and stared at me intensely.

Finally, she sighed. "I don't know what to do with you at the moment." She seemed truly lost. "I really want to hate you sooo much but I kind of realize why you did it. I mean, it did look like I'd done it right?" I nodded frantically. "And I guess if you'd let me go because of 'us', I wouldn't respect you very much. Though, it still hurt and you didn't have to tell me 'to rot in jail'."

"It just shows you I was hurt." I protested weakly.

"True." Bella laid back. She was quiet for a moment. I thought she might have fallen asleep. "How is this? We go back to being friends…"

"No!" I shook my head wildly.

"For now." Bella finished. "Look, I dislike you right now as much as I disliked you the first time we met. If we just back up we can go down a similar path. I do mean similar, not the same. Put me in jail one more time…"

I nodded. I liked this plan. I like it a lot. So, I interrupted her incoming threat with a hug.

"Was I okay with you touching me when we first met?" She growled and tried to shove me off though it was a little too playful for me to think that she seriously meant it. I did let go because I was afraid someone would come in or I'd hit her in the head again.

I just beamed at her while she fixed her glare on the wall and fought a tiny quirk of her lips. She lied. She liked me way more than when we first met. I really was happy she was free. Maybe we could get married like Billy and Sue….nope, way too soon to think about that. I should worry about finding who's framing Bella first. Tying her down relationship wise could come later.


	6. Chapter 6

The doctor that tended to Bella was a very tolerable man. He only glanced down at Bella's body once before he seemed to realize I was silently cursing him on the other side of the room. From that, I can only deduce that he understood that she was not one to be looked at like that, especially by someone with a wedding ring.

Bella hissed between her teeth as the doctor removed the bandage and began a thorough examination. I'd watched for a little bit but it started bleeding. Seeing as I was not good with blood, I ventured over to the corner of the room and sat down in one of the waiting chairs.

"You can leave, you know." Bella said to me when the man finally pulled away to ask her some questions.

"I know." I told her with a gentle smile. She rolled her eyes and returned her attention to the doctor as he asked her some odd questions. Bella answered all them the same.

My phone started ringing when he asked about the presence of a possibly abusive lover, spouse, or parental figure. Bella responded by telling him to read the police report because she'd already told him a million times she'd been shot by a hit man who someone made the police think she'd sent for. I don't see why the doctor couldn't get that right.

"Officer Brandon speaking." I answered.

"Alice?" Billy spoke. "I just received word of the situation involving your not-so murderer, Swan. I am under the impression that you are currently with her at a hospital to have her wounds examined correct?"

"That is correct, sir. We are at Southwest Memorial Hospital down on fifth." I explained. Billy was always much more professional on the phone than he was in person.

"Stay with her." Billy commanded. "You are not to leave her side until she can be placed in protective custody." I felt the hairs rise on the back of my neck and I took a protective step towards Bella, suddenly wondering if I should have checked the doctor of ID when he came in.

"Is there something wrong?" I asked, walking over to the window and closing the curtains. That got me some weird looks from the doctor and Bella. The doctor didn't say anything because I was in uniform but that didn't have any effect on Bella.

"Where'd the light go? Damn Alice, you part vampire or something; afraid of the sun?" She bared her teeth at me as if she had fangs. I waved at her to be quiet. She just went cross eyed at me before snapping at the doctor for poking her wound and surprising her.

"We can't be sure. If the framer finds out that they can no longer frame her, even if that was their plan, they're rather going to disappear or try to kill her."

"Yes sir. She won't leave my sight." I positioned myself to watch both the door and Bella. "Is this a short term or…"

"Not sure." Billy interrupted. "You are your team can't be take over the case once pulled off but you can take up protection detail. Isabella needs to be with someone from your team at all times." Billy suddenly joked, "I think it'd be a good time for you to get stabbed and win her love, don't you?"

I let out a muffled growl that made the man give a rather unprofessional laugh. I think that was his way of saying now that Isabella wasn't going to jail for the rest of her life, I could pursue a relationship. Well, that was good.

I relayed the information to Bella. She instantly looked displeased and held her hand out to me. I just stared at it until she motioned to the phone. I hesitantly gave it to her.

"That's my boss. Please, be civil." I pleaded.

Bella put the phone to her ear. "This is Isabella Swan, bad-ass of the world, speaking." There goes my career. "Yes, I have a number of concerns and questions concerning my…protection. Well, one of them is that I do have a job that I'd like to keep."

Bella gave a wave as the doctor left. "Well, I _could _take the time off or I could perform with one of Shorty's team watching me." I huffed. "Shorty." Bella repeated. "Alice. You know, she's short. Yeah, I thought it was a fitting name. Well, it's not like we don't have safety measures." Bella sighed. "Okay, okay. No preforming. Could you at least try to hurry in catching this person?"

I reached out and snatched the phone from her. "This is Alice again. Sorry about her. She doesn't exactly have any respect or manners." I turned away from Bella's indignant grunt.

Billy chuckled. "Well, it's definitely a nice break from those scared victims that listen to everything. If she lives through this, I want to formally meet her."

"Don't say that." I groaned. "So, do we stay at her house or at…"

"No!" Bella yelled. "_You _can stay at my trailer. The others can stay in the tiger's cage; the one that still has its claws."

Billy must have heard her because he chuckled again. "I was thinking about a conjoining hotel room that will easily be able to hold all of you for the first few days and give Isabella the illusion of privacy and then we can find a more permanent location." Billy and I discussed the details a little more before the doctor came back and I told Billy that I had to go.

The doctor tried to tell Bella the medication she needed to take and precautions she needed to follow while she healed. I could tell the second he opened his mouth, Bella instantly zoned him out and she turned her attention to the interesting sight of a nurse flirting with a doctor through the glass of the window. He finally stopped, in the middle of telling her when she needed to come back to get her stitches out, when he realized he didn't have her attention.

He turned towards me. I gave him a sympathetic smile before allowing him to tell me what needed to be done. As he left, he looked over his shoulder and compliment on how good of a girlfriend I was. I spluttered, turned bright red, and went to set the record straight.

Bella had other ideas. She gave a lazy smile, snuck a hand around my waist, and rested her chin on my shoulder. "She is a good girlfriend, isn't she? The personality makes up for the fact that she never, ever wants to have sex."

I gasped and whacked her in the sternum. I was going to hit her in the head but was afraid the doctor would think I was that elusive and abusive lover he'd been asking about earlier. Bella chuckled then full out laughed when the doctor left.

"Did you see his face?" She laughed. "He looked like he wanted to laugh at you but was afraid you'd shoot him."

"I may shoot you." I warned. I pretended not to notice the pure muscle and heat behind me and melting into my back. I waited for Bella to release me since the doctor was gone but she just kept an arm around my waist and her chin rested comfortably on my shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." I gently twisted out of her arms. "Let's go, Cuddle Monster. We got to get you to a secure location." Bella growled and crawled into the hospital bed.

"I wanna stay here." She pouted, nuzzling herself into the pillow and reaching about for the top of the sheets to pull over herself. "I still need to shower. I didn't want to shower in the holding area. I was afraid you guys had cameras in there and some nerds would watch."

"We don't do that." I huffed, grabbing the sheets before she could cocoon herself. "Come on. How about we get to this hotel and then you can take a shower for as long as you'd like."

Bella popped her head up with a grin. "I'll only agree to that if you get in with me." I turned on my heel and started to walk away. I was NOT going to agree to that. Bella let out a bark of laughter before she scrambled out of the bed and trotted after me.

"Is that a yes?" She inquired playfully. I just elbowed her in the side pretty hard. She grinned at me. "I take silence as a…"

"No!" I growled with smirk. I could tell that she really hadn't meant the offer because she smiled at me. I would have said more to attempt to lower her ego with more rejections but a younger nurse, probably a volunteer because she didn't look over eighteen, nearly ran into a wall while checking Bella out, so I settled for just increasing the pace I walked.

It wasn't Bella's fault really but, apparently, the clothing she had been arrested in had been a tank top, a tight pair of white jeans with black designs, and if you added the bandage to her, she looked hotter than normal.

She slipped into the car. "I'm starting to really grow fond of this car." Bella admitted, tracing her fingers over the ALICE. "I should buy a car like this. That truck of mine is really great and all but it burns so much fuel."

"That's funny. I was actually thinking of getting this one painted like yours."

"It's stupidly expensive." Bella admitted. "But it's worth it. Chicks dig a cool paint job." Bella and I kept up an easy conversation on our way to the hotel that Billy had specified. It wasn't a nice hotel but it wasn't a bad one either.

Bella gave it one glance. "Ahhh the memories that this place brings." I arched an eyebrow at her, just daring her to say anything more. Bella just grinned sheepishly before exiting out of the car. I decided not to push about those memories because I really don't think I want to know.

Bella easily found her way to the room but dutifully allowed me to check the room before she went in. Emmett was already there, lying on the bed. I nearly shot him.

Bella came in after me and chuckled. "I think this room is already taken." She joked. Emmett arched his eyebrow in surprise at Bella's playful tone and friendly demeanor. "Dude, you're in a hotel by yourself? You that much of a loser?"

Emmett scoffed and sat up. "Have you seen my wife? She's one of the hottest women on this earth. She's that hot." Bella rolled her eyes and demanded to see a picture. Emmett, of course, instantly provided one. Bella whistled between her teeth.

"She's quite a looker, you know, if you're into girls like her." Bella handed the picture back to the flabbergasted and slightly offended Emmett.

"How can you be a lesbian and not want my wife?" He exclaimed, waving the picture around like a luntic. "She's….she's amazing!"

"I don't disagree at all." Bella then turned. "She's just the opposite of my taste. I like my woman short and darker haired." She shot me one of those dazzling smiles. Emmett looked as if he felt bad for me considering I was stunned for a moment.

"While you get your brain working again," Bella said to me, "I'm getting in the shower." She then pointed at Emmett. "You stay out of the bathroom or I will fry you, got it?" Emmett gulped and nodded frantically. She winked at me before going into the bathroom. A few moments I heard the shower start.

I shook my head and sat down by Emmett on the bed. He patted my shoulder and gave me a dimpled grin. "If I didn't have Rose…"

I shoved his shoulder with an angry huff. The urge to hit him repeatedly over the head with my gun was intense. Emmett laughed at my expression. "I thought we discussed the extreme possessiveness! How many girls have you already lost to it?"

"It's not something you can get over easily." I grumbled. I hated my own possessiveness with a passion but it wasn't something that I could stop. I saw everyone that was looking at my girl as a possible threat and felt the need to mark my territory. I didn't pee on them or anything but I usually placed a very hot kiss on their mouth.

Jasper came in a few minutes later and scooped me up in a monstrous hug that nearly broke my back. I hugged him back.

"Yo Cowboy," I said, pushing him away before I suffocated, "I got ribs that would like to remain inside of my body." Jasper gave me a peck on the cheek before we all glanced over to see Edward walk in. He gave me one look, a single nod, before he went into the adjoining room with his suitcase.

"Ignore him." Jasper said. "He's getting in the zone for meeting Isabella. He's determined to be nice but has been having a hard time. He's hated her for so long that it's like a bad habit. Be easy on him. He's mostly doing it for you."

I nodded and went into the room where the boys would be staying. Edward was unpacking his small bag. "Hey." I told him softly.

"I'm not going to apologize." Edward started off. I rolled my eyes and was about to turn and walk away. "Because the truth is, anyone would have thought Isabella was in the wrong. However, now that we know she's not, I am going to protect her with my life as I would anyone else."

"That's all I ask." I told him. "I can see why you liked her though. She's pretty good looking."

Edward finally cracked a smile. "You should have seen her in high school. She wasn't quite as…sensual as she is now but she had this punkish hairstyle that was all choppy and a pierced tongue…dang, even now I feel like drooling."

What an odd way to bond, I mused.

"You know," Bella commented, "If we were dating, I wouldn't be too happy to find you in a male's room. I can be extremely possessive like that." I looked over my shoulder to see a very wet Bella watching me from the connecting doorway. Even though she was fully dressed, I found her an impressive sight with hair slightly tangled and hanging down, weighed down with water.

I snickered at her. "Already trying to talk me out of taking you up on that date?"

Bella grinned and walked in, taking a look around. "I'll have you know that possessive is extremely hot on me." Bella turned to look at Edward and I could see recognition flash through her eyes. "Edward Cullen. The man determined to rather win my heart or lock me up for the rest of my life."

I froze. I could already see this ending badly. I peeked around Bella's shoulder hoping that Jasper would come considering he had the ability to defuse situations pretty quickly.

"Isabella Swan." Edward greeted back. "I am not after your attentions anymore. You see that hot Texan in that room? Yup, he's my boyfriend and one day I will marry him. And I'll apologize to you for not considering your innocence but…"

Bella waved him off. "If you hadn't suspected me at all, I'd be worried about the competence of the police here." I blinked. Was Bella actually being civil and taking the high road? "If you forgive me for…whatever I did, I'll forgive you for being stupid." Well, there goes that peace.

"Outing me in front of the entire school." Edward grumbled at her. "And being a good police officer but, okay, lets just call it even." I waited for the hidden barb but it didn't come.

Bella gave him a small smile before she ducked down and scooped me up. I squealed in surprise.

"I have a Taser in my belt! If I accidentally tase you, I will not feel bad about it all." I warned, surprised she wasn't complaining about the thick belt that was probably digging into her lower stomach.

Bella just hummed in amusement and carried me past Emmett and Jasper who snickered at me.

"Come on! You're making me look bad in front of the other police officers." I whined. Bella laughed and sat down on the bed with me before she laid down and trapped me on the bed with her. Emmett whistled loudly.

"Just ignore him." Bella whispered, holding me a little tighter. "What was it that you called me earlier? Cuddle Monster?" I groaned before knocking her hands off of me and rolling out of the bed. Bella opened an eye to watch me go before she cuddled back into the bed.

Emmett chuckled at me. "She's pretty strong, isn't she? She carried you like you weighed nothing at all." I rolled my eyes at him and started stripping of my officer's uniform. Obviously, I had a thin tank top under the uniform and a pair of long boxer shorts. I'd wait till tomorrow before I ran back home to gather some more things.

"Dressed to impress?" Jasper teased. I glared at him before deciding that if I had dressed to impress, this is probably what I would have worn. I always found 'day off' clothes to be much more attractive than those dresses. On that note, I'd have to get Bella her clothes so I could see how she looked in her comfortable clothing.

All three of us went into the other room and sat on the twin beds. Jasper looked around. "I don't like being on protection detail. It's awfully boring." We were all quick to agree.

I then proceeded to tell them what had happened at the hospital with Jane. "She looked really surprised that Bella was there though…well, I'm not sure if it was because she thought her mentor was in jail or because she thought her mentor would be in jail all her life."

Edward mulled that over. "I'll call and tell the lead team about it. Anything else?"

"It's not directly involved but I'd say that Jane has romantic feelings towards Bella. She kissed her cheek repeatedly." I narrowed my eyes slightly and really did try to keep any jealousness out of my voice but I'm pretty sure I failed miserably.

"A romantic attachment would hold its own against her motive. People tend to do crazy things for love but it's usually _for _the people they're in love with and not against the people they're in love with."

"Well, killing people that have done wrong to Bella is _for _her." Jasper said. We thought about that for a while.

"Well, the framing wouldn't be for Bella. It would directly harm her." Edward pointed out. We continued to talk about it but got nowhere but Jane was our only real suspect.

"Don't talk about Jane like that." Bella appeared from her room and looked irritated with our line of thinking. "She's a sweetheart and wouldn't hurt a fly." I felt a twinge of jealously when I saw Bella defend Jane like a lioness protecting her cubs. Her dark eyes were flashing to each of us like she was trying to decide which one to yell at first.

Jasper held his hands out. "We don't know any of these people. We are simply looking for people that _could _have done it." Bella eyed him suspiciously. "We also discussed Aro, the possibility of an officer, the hitmen themselves, and so on."

Bella finally relaxed her shoulders and apologized for her aggression. "It's just that Jane has been through a lot in her life. When her twin died, Jane was a mess. She's like the little sister I never wanted but wouldn't trade for anything in the world."

I got up, suddenly aware of Bella's appreciating looks to my attire, and grabbed her hand. "Come on, let's go to bed." She obediently fell in behind me.

"Don't do anything I wouldn't!" Emmett hollered.

"Like that limits anything." I huffed back. I turned to Bella as I closed the door. "We have monitors at all the doors and the front desk is to call us if any suspicious characters get off on our floor. The boys will sleep in there and I'll….Can I sleep with you?"

"I thought you'd never ask." Bella teased, jumping on the bed and stretching like some oversized cat. She held her arms out and I eyed her.

"We haven't even been on a date and you want me to jump into bed with you?" I acted offended which failed when she shot me a wolfish grin and patted the spot beside her. "Okay, I'll sleep with you but no funny business. I'm working."

Bella rolled her eyes and nodded. I quickly laid down next to her and sighed in contentment when she wrapped her arms around my waist and pulled me snuggly into her. She smelled like a fresh shower and I could feel her shirt was a little damp.

I looked up to tell her to go change shirts or something because she could catch or give me a cold but I found her looking down at me with barely restrained desire and, when I say barely restrained, I mean a chain with only a single link left. She gave me a crooked grin and ducked her head to rest her mouth next to my ear.

"Define funny business." She whispered and I made the stupid observation that her voice was much sexier when her voice was rough and raspy like this.

I swallowed. "It's…ummmm." She ran her lips with feather like touches across my ear, down my jaw line, before placing a firm kiss on the underside of my jaw. "Bella." I whined, hoping she'd know I was complaining about her messing around during working hours instead of urging her on.

"Huh?" She asked, gently taking a bit of skin between her teeth. I hissed breathlessly before I was able to shakily push her away. She let go of my throat without damage and allowed herself to be pulled backwards before she leaned up.

"Please, stop." I told her softly. She looked disappointed, so I buried my face into her neck and let out a few curses. "I really like you." I said into her throat, aware that I was turning bright red. "In fact, I'm so attracted to you that it's scary but…"

"No sex?" Bella asked and I just knew she was pouting.

"No sex when there are three of my coworkers awake in the next room." I corrected her. I felt her relax and she tightened her arms until they were about the same as earlier. "When I'm off duty and they're not around, I'm all yours….you know, after at least three dates."

"Three?" Bella groaned. "Come on! A normal girl I could understand and respect three but you…you're fucking hot as hell! I can barely stand being in this bed with you at the moment and you want me to wait for at least three more dates?"

I chuckled at her reaction. "I'll count the time you cheered me up as a date." I said helpfully. She continue to grumble unhappily for a moment before she grinned.

"And the time you came into my trailer will also be counted as date."

"No!" I laughed. "I was in uniform. That doesn't count." She huffed and seemed to be trying to recall anything else she could call as a date.

"The time in the hospital?" She asked hopefully.

"You mean when you're apprentice was leaping all over you, planting kisses on your face, doctors looking down your shirt, and young nurses running into doors because they're checking you out. If you consider that a date, I may not go out with you again."

"You really don't want to sleep with me, do you?" Bella joked. "Okay, okay. Two more dates. And I'm guessing this cuddle session doesn't count as a date?" I shook my head before cuddling back into her neck. I heard her mutter something about me being lucky I was hot before she started to settle back down.

I'm pretty sure it was just reflex because she was nearly asleep but she instantly started running her thumb up and down between my shoulders. It felt good and worked as well, if not better than, a lullaby.

"Stop that." That was what I wanted to say. I'm sure it came out more as an appreciated groan. I slept through that night and the only thought I could even manage to have that entire night was that I was happy that Bella didn't really move much in her sleep. I was able to just lie contently in her arms.

I woke up with Emmett shaking my shoulder in the early morning.

"You're turn to keep watch." He whispered to me, careful not to wake Bella up. "There's been nothing about tonight." He ran his fingers through his hair. I gave him a grateful smile and slowly untangled myself from Bella's arms.

I nudged her arms away. She slowly opened her eyes at my moving, the beautiful brown looking drowsier and darker than normal. "Shhh." I whispered. "Go back to sleep." I don't think she was awake because she instantly fell back asleep. "Aren't you adorable?" I softly cooed and got up from the bed.

Emmett was grinning at the scene. "Hey, Billy called. He talked to Carlisle about the profile of our murderer. Not Isabella," Emmett quickly added, "The other one. He says the killer is, what was the wording, unstable. So, the attack, if there will be one, will happen relatively quickly."

I nodded. Emmett wished me good luck on my shift before he trotted back to sleep in the other bed that was not holding the two snuggling men. I sat down at the table, with my back against the window, and sipped at some coffee.

Emmett had left his laptop up for me and I surfed around a bit, making sure not to get too deep into the computer to lose track of my surroundings. The hotel room's phone rang around six and I got to my feet to answer it.

"Room 221 speaking." I answered.

"Hello, officer." The hurried voice of the desk worker reached my ears. "A rather large man got off on your floor. He seemed really fidgety. He's big too." I thanked the man and hung up. I woke Jasper, Edward, and Emmett up quickly and we went to the two doors with our guns pulled out.

Bella woke up in this and her eyes widened when she saw the guns out. She didn't pull the covers over her and bury herself like a regular person would. No, she threw the covers off of herself and stood like she was in a pitcher's stance.

I could see fire starting to lick at her fingers and I would have chuckled if not for the tenseness of the situation. Bella planned on throwing a fireball at the culprit when he came in. We heard the loud footsteps before anything.

Emmett winced at every stomp. The door handle jiggled once and the safety went off on our guns. Edward locked eyes with Jasper and they nodded when they were both ready. Edward grabbed the door handle, took a deep breath, and jerked the door open.

I was instantly surprised by the sheer size of the man but, I'd say, he was more surprised than the rest of us when he found himself looking down the barrel of three guns. He yelped and leapt backwards.

Emmett leapt forward and had the man on his back before he could even yelp. Emmett frisked him while the man struggled below him. "Yo! Get off of me, man! I didn't do nothing!" Emmett was able to finish the frisk despite being thrown around like a bull rider.

"State your name!" Edward yelled as Jasper helped hold down the man.

"Jacob! Jacob Black!"

Now why did that name sound familiar?

"Jacob!" Bella yelled, running out of the room before falling into a fit of laughter.

"Yeah, this is real funny, Swan!" Jacob bellowed out angrily. "Tell em to get off!" Bella was in no state to even say anything. She was supporting herself against the doorframe and her body was shaking in silent laughter; sometimes a snort or bark would escape her mouth.

"Do you know him, Isabella?" Jasper asked.

"Yeah, she does!" Jacob growled. "I'm that one's best friend." That's when the name clicked for everyone and we sheepishly got off the boy. The man leapt up and straightened out his rumbled shirt and scowled at everyone.

"You…You!" Bella gasped. "You looked like you were about to wet your pants!" She squealed as Jacob leapt at her and we had to watch as they rolled around on the ground. He was yelling at her, though chuckling, and she was still howling with laughter.

"You didn't tell me there were going to be guns!" He groaned, getting off of her and walked in to look at the hotel room. "I was expecting the hot cop to answer the door." I blushed when everyone looked at me. Jacob looked me over critically before giving a so-so gesture to Bella. She just looked baffled and looked me over as if to find the fault he'd seen.

I turned away from her studying glance but was pleased to see she was still confused, seemingly not having found that fault.

"Nice place." Jacob commented. "One bed?" He turned to look at everyone. "Wow, Bells. Even for you, that's pretty kinky." Bella let out an indignant snort before gesturing to the slightly opened door. When he saw it was an adjoining room, he just shrugged.

"What are you doing here, anyways?" Bella asked when Jacob continued looking around and acting as if he was ready to raid her fridge. "I believe I specifically told you not to come here. Something about me not supposed to be telling people where I'm staying."

Jasper gave Bella an exasperated look. "You told him?!"

"It's Jake." Bella explained. "If he doesn't know where I am, he's like a blood hound and will sniff me out. I figured we should save all the questionable methods he'd use and just tell him where I was."

"I'm just protective, Bells." Jacob explained with a wave of his hands. "I had to come and make sure you were okay and that your cops could protect you. I have to say," he gave a dramatic rolling out of his shoulders, "I think you're in good hands."

"Sorry." Emmett apologized, after he cleared out the hallway and trotted back into the hotel room. "I saw you standing there and was like 'boom'!"

Jacob shrugged. "Normally, I'd be pissed but I'm just happy cause if I was the real guy, he'd be broken and disarmed in seconds." Jacob then led Bella to the bed where he sprawled out like a large dog, making himself quite at home, while Bella sat on the chair next to it.

They instantly went about gossiping like two little girls with wild hand gestures thrown in. Emmett called down to the front desk to tell them that it was a false alarm. I watched all this and decided I was awake enough to go home and get some of my things.

"Hey Bella," I called as I headed towards the door, "I'm going to run home and pick up some stuff and feed the cats. You need me to run by the circus and pick anything up for you?" Bella thought about it for a moment before Jacob said he had grabbed a bunch of her clothes that she had left at his house the last time she'd been there.

She must have seen the uncertainty flash through my eyes so she then proceeded to subtly slid into the conversation that Jacob was just as gay as she was and in a very healthy relationship with some Paul guy.

I left a bit after that as Bella began to tease Emmett about the second biggest man in the room now. The drive to my house was short and uneventful besides me losing my cool at a slow driver and yelling profanities at them while blasting my horn.

When I got home, my cats leapt on me and mewed their disapproval at my absence. I fed them and was a little heartbroken to see that Grady ignored his food to follow me around and get some attention.

I scooped him up and went about collecting clothes and other womanly things that the guys didn't like hearing about let alone would have brought. When my bag was full and I was sure I'd covered everything, I checked my messages.

I had one from Emily again wanting to see me. I instantly deleted that without the hesitation I'd had last time. I had another from my mom, so I instantly called her back. She was not a woman that you just ignored her phone calls.

"Hello?" She answered. I sighed in relief. I don't know what I would have done if dad had answered. Probably hung up on the spot.

"Hey mom." I greeted.

"Alice!" Mother said happily. "I was wondering when you'd get the time to call back." There was that ability to make you feel guilty. I'm not sure if she did it on purpose or not.

"Sorry, mom." I said, nearly tripping over one of the cats. "I've been really busy. I'm kinda doing witness protection except, you know, she's not a witness. She is actually a performer who was, until recently, a suspected serial killer."

There was a silence on the other end. "I don't see why you tell me this stuff. All it does is make me worry about the life you're living down there." I rolled my eyes but chuckled at her exasperated tone.

"Don't worry about it, mom. Bella is really nice and is definitely innocent of those murders."

It didn't really sooth my mother over much but she turned her attention to me not having a boyfriend or, more importantly, a husband. So, I may not have gotten around to telling mom and dad that I'm a lesbian. Whoops.

"I'm really interested in someone right now." I admitted at further questioning. "It's not serious or anything because of the craziness going on in our lives but I think it could turn into something. This is me talking on only one kinda date though."

Mother was still ecstatic that someone had caught my attention. She was getting old, she explained, and she wanted grandchildren before she was too old to remember them. I told her that I had to go back and guard Bella and she let me off. The whole purpose of that phone call, I concluded, was simply to push me forward in relationships.

I leapt back into my car and speedily drove back. Some part of me expected there to be some chaos when I was gone and I was right. When I walked in, I rolled my eyes as I saw Emmett sitting in front Bella and looking absolutely amazed.

Bella was holding her hand out and would occasionally flick fire up. I caught a single twitch of her thumb that moved in time with the flame but that observation didn't answer anything. Emmett suddenly threw his hands out, caught her hands, and looked them over closely.

"Are you sure you're not a real wizard?" He exclaimed with wide eyes.

"I believe the correct term is witch." Bella mused darkly. Emmett's eyes widened before Bella laughed. "I'm just pulling your leg. If I was a witch, I wouldn't have stayed for jail for a day. I would have been in Hawaii instead."

"Stop messing with Emmett's head." I told her with a chuckle. She looked up to me and smiled. Jacob snickered from the bed he was resting on and Emmett gave a giant pout.

"Sorry, Ali-baby." Bella apologized and got off of the couch with Emmett and trotted up to me. I wanted to tell her not to do anything but she just wrapped her arms around my waist and lifted me up into the air. I laughed.

"Put me down." I told her and she instantly complied with a wicked grin.

"Not my fault. After such an amazing night last night, I felt a little vulnerable when you left me alone." Her eyes sparkled in mischief that turned into amusement when my coworkers began whistling at us.

"She doesn't mean it like that." I told them sternly and tried to glare at Bella but the girl was openly ignoring the glare and opting for staring curiously to the bag in my hands. "It's not for you." I told her which she pouted at.

"Isabella." Jasper called. "Your dad is on the phone." Bella turned her attention away from me and went to Jasper and took the cellphone from him.

"This is Agent Awesome." Bella answered. "I'm afraid that Bella Swan cannot come to the phone right now due to the fact the president of the United States is bowing at her feet and she's having a hard time getting around him. I can take a message if…." Bella laughed at something her father must have said. "Sorry, dad. But you know I can't resist." She saw all of us watching her so she went to the conjoining room, chasing Edward out through hand signals, and closed the door.

"I think she's worse than Emmett." Jasper mused.

"I want her as a sister." Emmett exclaimed. "I'm asking Rose if her sister could possibly marry Bella. Sorry it's not going to work out between you two Alice."

"What are you going on about?" I asked him. "Rose's sister is straight and Bella is kinda mine at the moment."

"But if she marries you, she's not my sister! Not really." Emmett continued to try to get me to agree his completely random and ridiculous notion of getting Rose's completely straight sister and Bella together.

"I am not giving up Bella for one of Carmen's puppies." I told Emmett, completely aghast at having him offer me the pick of the litter to relinquish my rights on Bella. "This is getting ridiculous!"

"What's getting ridiculous?" Bella asked, walking up behind me and wrapping her arms around my stomach like she had done in the hospital.

"Emmett," I declared with a scoff, "Is trying to bribe me to let you marry his wife's sister."

"Is she hot?" Bella asked. I gaped at her and attempted to move away but Bella just tightened her grip on me and gave me a cheeky smile. "I'm sorry, honey. You know I'm just playing." She nuzzled into the side of my neck and I lost the ability to stay mad at her.

"Yeah, yeah…"

Glass shattered and the wall by Bella and my head blew up. Jacob leapt off the bed, did a flying superman, and tackled both me and Bella to the ground with so much force that we slid out of the view of the window and into the side of the couch.

"We're under fire!" Jasper said into his Motorola as another shot landed semi-near Jacob and the boys took cover where they could. "North window. Shooters somewhere in the old rec center on 445 Center Avenue. No visual." A few more shots were fired that still seemed aimed at Bella when the sirens appeared and the gun shots went quiet.

"Everyone okay?" Edward asked. He received all sorts of answers. And Bella, of course, yelled, 'I'll be fine when someone gets this mammoth off of my diaphragm!' Jacob laughed and got off of us and then got us both to our feet.

"Just wait until I tell Paul about this!" The huge boy said excitedly. "I've never been shot at before. That was sooo cool!"

Emmett ran to Jacob in a childlike fashion and threw his hands up. "You were awesome. You, like, flew across the room to get to the girls. I am having you over for dinner sometime." Jacob looked all bashful and a light red went across his cheeks.

"Yeah, thanks for the cracked ribs, bro." Bella jumped into Jacob's arms and gave him a tight hug. He muttered something to her and squeezed her. It was a touching sight between two best friends. Once down, Bella trotted over to me and placed her palm against my sides and started pushing.

At first, I thought it was just a random Bella moment until I hissed when she put too much pressure on my right lower side. "I think you're ribs are bruised." Bella stated, gently running her thumb up and down them. "They're not broken but could be fractured."

"Listen to Bella. She's had enough broken ribs in her lifetime to know the difference." Jacob called over as he dialed Paul to explain to him what had happened.

"You get a lot of broken ribs?" I asked her, reeling in the way her thumb so gently stroked the tender skin.

She hummed. "In high school, I was always in fights. Isn't that right, Eddie?" Edward rolled his eyes but nodded in agreement. "Victoria, her boyfriend, and his little group had a problem with kids that were different. I was the poster child for lesbians sooo…I got jumped a lot." I frowned at the flicker of pain in her eyes and leaned up to kiss her cheek.

She would have responded, likely with something dirty, when we heard a tiny voice yelling. We looked over to where Jacob was holding his phone away from his ear with a look of horror while a male screamed profanities at the large man.

"Did you tell him where we are?" Bella asked fearfully. Jacob shook his head violently before pretending he'd been listening to his boyfriends yelling.

"So, what now?" Bella asked, glancing at the bullet hole that had nearly taken off both our heads.

Emmett grinned. "Now, we change locations."


End file.
